Hello all.

First of all, apologies if this is in the wrong place - it seemed like the most appropriate place to put it, but mods, please feel free to move it if needed.

I'm currently studying to become a computer games designer, and one of the things that keeps cropping up is that it really pays to get some design experience for *any* system - not just a particular games platform or system. Now, I've been playing Shadowrun for years, so it struck me that it would be useful to think about how we (our group that is) plays and designs our adventures - and it might help me analyse the lessons I'm hopefully learning from my course and apply them to other projects. I'm posting these topics on our course forums as well, to be disected from a purely design point of view, but it occurred me that I'd probably get some good feedback and interest here as well - and you never know, it might inspire or intringe some people as well.

Please excuse any "teaching you to suck eggs" style comments about what shadowrun is - this was originally written for non-tabletop players who might not understand the terms at all and needed some context. For reference, we play 3rd edition SR, using many of the optional/expanded rules from Cannon Companion, Rigger 3, Magic in the Shadows, Shadowrun Companion etc - along with a small selection of house rules that have evolved over the years (for instance in our games all metahuman races gain karma pool at 1:10 good karma gained, not just humans)

Please feel free to respond with any feedback - constructive criticism especially welcome!

The Guardians.

Introduction

For nearly a decade now I've been playing "Shadowrun" - a pen and paper roleplaying game. Set somewhere between 2050 and 2070, it deals with a world that diverged from ours sometime in the 20th century and started to follow an alternate time line, in which mega-corporations have exceeded the power of nation states, in which horrific plagues have ravaged the world and perhaps most importantly in which magic, following a sine wave that stretches over thousands of years, has returned to the world. A deeper understanding of the world of Shadowrun can be gained from this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun

This blog, narrative, description, or meandering tale of woe (delete as you feel appropriate!) is a description of activities of a gaming group based in this world, steered by my efforts at creating an engrossing, immersive and fun campaign to match a Hollywood blockbuster movie. In particular I'll be detailing my aims and objectives in the design of characters, non-player characters, locations, mission objectives, overall plot arcs, player motivations

My gaming group
Playing with 5 other people, one night a week for about 3 hours, our Tuesday nights have been taken up with forays into this alternate world for many years now. Here's a brief overview of the group, from my point of view.

1. Kren, myself, an IT technician / games designer. A long term player of both pen and paper games, live action games, and computer games, I really enjoy my gaming and trips into alternate worlds. Normally the person to try and cut down on the side chat and off topic discussion, I tend to end up as the party leader (either by default or by shooting the previous leader for being inefficient) when I'm not GMing.
2. Ali, my wife, a civil servant, normally can be relied upon to play a character with a more sensitive side and less prone to acts of random violence. Often taking on the mantle of the group healer, she's normally the one that tries to think through all the contingences of a plan. With years of Live RPG experience but only experience of Shadowrun as a Pen'n'Paper (PNP) system, Ali sometimes finds herself at odds with the others who have "been there, run that"...
3. Jez, another civil servant, is a long time Shadowrun player who has been playing since the days of the first edition. A keen gamer, he's normally the most flexible of the group and willing to play just about any role in the party, or any style of game. Often the person most willing to drive a story forward and to try to come up with "the plan", he frequently ends up as the group leader when I'm not playing.
4. Justin, a clinical technician, a long term gamer and veteran of games such as AD&D and Rolemaster, he's fairly new to the world of Shadowrun. Jus is an "old school" type of gamer, keen to mix it up with the monsters, steal their treasure then spend some XP and level up, and can be quite gung ho - but is settling in to Shadowrun's very grey and amoral setting and getting to grips with the rules.
5. Fozzy, a graphic designer, has been gaming since his university days, but has much more experience with Live games than PnP. However, what he lacks in experience, he more than makes up for in zany, off the wall, bizzare and crazy plans and characters with twists, flaws, goals and ambitions. If ever there is someone to come up with the plan that truly blindsides the GM, it's almost certain to be him. On the other hand, he has an almost uncanny knack of rolling 1's for random encounters...
6. Lee, a stock controller, combines many of the experiences and qualities of Jez and Justin. Having played many PNP games for a considerable time, he has a wide experience of different RPGs, but also can enjoy a simple dungeon bash and dragon hunt.

So - that's the group. Based on the levels of experience, we have at various times rotated the games master position between Jez, Lee and myself. Normally we've had characters that can cover for the "missing" person, so that the group can continue to function.

Group composition
Shadowrun has no fixed classes - all characters are defined by the proficiency with skills and equipment instead. However, there are some "archetypes" that are quite common. Like a "standard" AD&D group of Fighter, Ranger, Cleric, Thief and Wizard, Shadowrun games often end up with a similar makeup:-

• Street Samurai - a character with good physical reactions, strength and toughness, well equipped with weapons, armour and gear designed to chop up the enemy.
• Rigger - characters with a piece of cyberwear called a "vehicle control rig" that allows them to directly interface with vehicles and drive with amazing precision. They can also control "drones" - robots or mini-vehicles that can act as spies, gun platforms or mobile forces.
• Decker - characters with a different piece of cyberwear that allows them to "jack in" to the modern equivalent of the WWW... except in 2060 it's more like the virtual world of Max Headroom.
• Face - characters emphasising social skills and mental abilities, that can talk you out of, or in to a tight situation.
• Magic users - either hermetic (scientific approach), shamanic (spiritual approach) or adepts (superhuman control over their own body) - all offer a variety of magical skills and support to a team.

Commonly, a group would have at least one to two Street Sams, at least one or two magic users, a technical based character (either rigger or decker) - and at least one of the characters would have the skills needed to act as a doctor or medic to deal with injuries.

A "standard" shadowrun
If such a thing exists, a standard shadowrun adventure runs something like this:

• A fixer or contact approaches the team with a job offer.
• The players arrange a meeting, where the details of the job are explained.
• The players do leg-work. Research the target, plan the mission, work out their get-away strategy.
• The run - the actual break in, assassination, escort, demolition, smuggling, retrieval, extraction or heist.
• The handover - where the players hope to get paid, not get double crossed and get away clean.

Normally after each "job", Karma (XP) is awarded, which can then be spent on buying or improving new skills, learning new magical abilities, raising core statistics etc.

What we did...
So, now that you've met the group, seen the anatomy of a standard run and understand a little about Shadowrun's classless system, I can talk about what we did.
For the bulk of our time, we've played a fairly typical game of Shadowrun. We got jobs, we did the jobs, we got Karma and cash, we upgraded, we took on bigger jobs. Occasionally characters would die and get replaced with new team members. Sometimes we'd swap characters in and out as we rotated GMs to avoid burnout or to have a bit of a change. But on the whole we mostly stuck to the basic formula, blowing stuff up, stealing stuff, extracting scientists from corporate enclaves... the usual stuff.

Sometimes I or one of the other GMs would use some of the long standing contacts or NPCs to launch continuations of plotlines or feature as recurring plot elements. But for me at least... there was something missing. Though our playstyle (and a selection of "house rules") made for a dramatic and flamboyant game, I felt like there just wasn't enough substance to our play.

So I came up with a plan... (and if this was a movie, there'd be ominous music playing now)

What I want to do...
I wanted to make a campaign, with a long run plot arc, and several intertwining threads. A campaign with recurring NPCs, both good and bad, that have personality, foibles, dreams and aspirations. A campaign in which what the players do really matters and will change the world at large, but in a realistic and manageable way. A campaign in which I can give vivid descriptions of locations and situations and really engage my players' imaginations, and encourage them to really get under their characters skins.

Beginnings
So. Where to start?
For a while now, Jez has often pondered aloud about running a "single archetype" game. This might be something like a group of Street Sams - a gang in some urban hellhole who constantly have to fight to survive, or a team of cyber-hackers who dance rings around the matrix authorities and perform daring white collar bank jobs. Or... a team of magic users, all from the same tradition or outlook.
That idea grabbed me, and the first seeds of an idea began to form.
"What about a campaign following a bunch of magical monks as they do stuff"?
Hmm, let's see. We have a strong group dynamic - they're all monks from the same monastery, so no problems as to why they should all trust each other and work together. They should all be able to come up with a "balanced" character... it's unlikely that borderline psychotic killers would make good monks, and that's good for party integrity and campaign flow. They will all have a good excuse for being good at martial arts - which makes not only for survivability, but also for cool cinematic moments and epic rolling bar fights. And finally, it gives them a remote secret monastery to use as a hideout - somewhere to go back to and train or recuperate from missions.

"The team will play a group of monks, engaging on missions from their secret mountain hideaway, following the directives of the senior monks to engage in a variety of clandestine missions in locations around the world."

With that basis decided upon, it was time to flesh out the idea somewhat.
From the base idea, I came up with a number of twists or facets that would hopefully add interest.
Set the home base in Tibet. In the Shadowrun world, Tibet has been isolated from the rest of the world for 50 years by a magical cloud-like barrier that confuses and misdirects anyone attempting to pass. There are brief descriptions in the sourcebook "Shadows of Asia" about the country - mostly dealing with the barrier itself and the political and religious consequences of the barrier.
This gives me as a GM great leeway in crafting the country and it's environment to serve the campaign, without contradicting other material. It also however opens up a new bag of problems - the players have no understanding of that environment or situation, and need to be told everything important about their world.
Much like a person starting a new computer game, or starting a new book, I had to explain the social rules, geography, politics, customs - everything - that would affect them, or their world wouldn't make sense.

Second, I decided to add a spiritual and mystical element to the campaign. There would be magical spirits, powerful beings tied in some way to the mysticism of the country that inhabited the monastery. In fact... they run the show, with the senior monks reporting to them and taking directions from them. Straight away this alters the dynamic of the situation... now the players are doing work for beings that are not meta-humans (metahuman in this case covering the "playable human like races" such as elves, orks, humans, dwarves and trolls) - and as such will have a different outlook on life. Do they share the same morality as the human monks? Do they have the same regard for life? Will what they ask the players to do, make sense to them - or will they have to just accept that there is a plan, and it might be beyond human understanding?
By adding in these "other worldly" creatures, and placing them in an important part of the campaign, I hope to add an aura of mystery, unpredictability and excitement to the campaign.

The third aspect of this campaign setting, was the level of equipment available to the players. In a "normal" Shadowrun game, players spend points to buy abilities, skills, attributes, magical power and starting cash. Depending on the amount of points available, and how much you are willing to sacrifice from your abilities, it's possible to start with anywhere up to two million Nuyen (the global currency of Shadowrun... think of them as gold pieces, if you prefer). Now, you can buy a lot of gear for two mil... a whole truckload of guns... a truck to put the guns in, a variety of safe houses, magical swords, access to spy satellites, combat drones, military grade armour, sports cars... the list goes on and on. And while having lots of "stuff" can open up new avenues and opportunities, it can also give you shortcuts and close off other areas of play. For instance, a desperate race against time across the city during rush-hour to intercept the killer after his electronic codes were broken by the team can become trivial and unexciting when the team was rich enough to avoid their own private VTOL aircraft and can zoom across the city in mere moments. Of course there are ways to spice up such a journey - air collisions, break downs, bandits, FAA busybodies demanding to do an inspection... but these are all responses to a player condition.
Instead, by setting the campaign in a fairly low tech society (the country has been isolated for so many years, that many of the changes to the world have passed them by), and in a fairly austere setting within that society (monks tend to live fairly simple lives, uncluttered by personal avarice and greed), I could limit the amount of "toys" available to them. That's not to say there would be no toys at all - just that they would be rarer and more unusual in this setting. This should have the effect that when a player does get hold of a "shiny toy", it becomes so much the sweeter and more valuable to them due to the relative rarity.
Balanced against this, will be the consideration of making things too hard, and too tough. The players should always be able to get at basic supplies and equipment, and they shouldn't feel that they have to fight we me over fairly mundane items.

Finally, the last twist I really wanted to add, was the powers of Divination and Foresight to the game. This came to me one day while walking the dog around the park, about how cool it might be to have players having glimpses of the future that seemed to make no sense, until they suddenly came across a situation where things just gelled together. Each character could be given different fragments of prophecy, and they wouldn't know when or even if their fragment would become relevant. This should keep them on their toes, interested in what is going on around them, and looking forward to their "special moment" where they suddenly have specific knowledge that will help them. From a campaign point of view, it would hopefully allow me to subtly alter and shape the plot progression, and potentially allow me to put the players in some very intense moments that had considerable risk or danger, but allow a realistic exit from that situation that gave the players a good chance of success.

"The team will play a group of magical monks, engaging on missions from their secret mountain hideaway, following the directives of the enigmatic magical beings that control the order to engage in a variety of clandestine missions in locations around the world. Often sent out with minimal equipment and funds, the monks must rely on their natural skills, magical abilities, teamwork and the bizarre and fragmentary dreams inspired by the magic flowing through their hideaway to accomplish their tasks".

Sounds like a good start to me!

Seems reasonable. I would add a section about, from a design-perspective, how you added Shadowrun color to your initial idea, bringing in special rules from MitS, fiction, or your own imagination. Making it distinctly 'Shadowrun' is an important step.

I'd also do some editing and make it a lot shorter.

Having taken the design decision to have the characters start with no real information about what was going on, I decided to take a deep breath and take an even larger step into the un-known.

Pre-generated characters.

Normally found in tournament, expo or convention play, pre-gens have something of a mixed reputation. On one hand, with a pre-gen you can be reasonably sure that the character party is balanced, and has the skills needed for the adventure that they will face. You also know that the power level within the group is balanced, and have some control over the ambitions, scope or objectives of the players.

On the other hand, many people don't like playing pre-gens, as they lack that personal touch. It's a character designed by someone else, with their skill choices, choice of quirks, mannerisms and goals. They can lack the personal investment of sitting and working through the character design process and coming up with something unique and special.

But - this was a new campaign, and if ever there was a time to take the step, this was it. By generating all the characters myself, I could make sure that balance and composition was good, give each player some interesting skills that I could highlight during the game. I could also start them off with some gaping skill flaws that they might want to remedy quickly, which they'd have to balance against other uses of their Karma points.

So, taking a deep breath, I sat down with my notepad and started to sketch out some base guidelines for the campaign. Below are the ten base points:

1. All characters start at base attributes of 5, before racial modifiers are applied.
2. All characters start with English and Tibetan at 5, with Read/Write at 3 using up their language points
3. All characters start with athletics, stealth and Lama-Pai-Ha (a magical based martial art) at 5
4. All characters must be physical adepts, mages or shamen, and must start with no cyberwear or /biowear. They all begin with the normal essence score of 6
5. All characters start with no more than 5,000 nuyens worth of personal effects.
6. All phys-ads have 8 power points to spend, all mages and shamen have 55/75 spell points to spend (full or aspected). Magicians way characters start with (points X 8 spell points). Starting powers or spells are limited to level 3 or below.
7. All characters start at grade 1, with masking and having taken Oath as their first grade ordeal.
8. All start with karma pool of 1 and 5 good karma.
9. Characters have 25 points to spend on knowledge skills
10. Characters then have 30 points to spend on additional active, knowledge or language skills, or on racial costs.

Base attributes
Most "normal" people in the shadowrun world start with their attributes (strength, toughness, body, quickness, intelligence and charisma) at about 3. At rating 6 the attribute is considered "very good", possibly "world class". By starting with a fairly high, but uniform rating, I gave the players a good starting basis for their characters. They would certainly be stronger, tougher, faster, cleverer than the average pedestrian - and in fact a great deal of the opposition. In the "cinematic" style games we play, it's not unusual for a player to take on several times their number of opponents, in a similar vein to an arcade beat'em'up.

Having base attributes at a reasonable level gives the players a fairly durable character that can also "default" well. In shadowrun terms, this is when you fall back on a linked skill or attribute in the absence of a specific skill. For instance, a character without the pistol skill could default to rifles if they had that, or back to quickness if they had neither. Defaulting raises the target number (difficulty) of whatever they were trying to do - but offers a chance for desperate on-the-spot improvisation which can help define key moments. Having a reasonable number of dice in their attributes, they still have a good chance of performing tasks, even when defaulting.

Quite often, when players design characters they are tempted to min-max their statistics.... to make their character very good at certain areas, but hopeless at others. By fixing the attribute levels, I hoped to steer people away from this overall mentality - there are no "dump" stats in this game, and their characters are all very flexible.

Languages
Having played in a group before where there was a mix of languages at the start, and the team had to learn in-game to communicate with each other, I decided that this was not appropriate in this game. English is the most common language the characters would meet, and will allow them to get by in 90% of situations. Tibetan is their "home" language, and due to their country being sealed off, is very rare. This also offers the team the possibility of using it to send messages that are almost incomprehensible to others - almost like a secret language. Of course, if and when the team start using this to start sending each other all sorts of interesting and tactical information, perhaps it will be time to send them up against a scholar who happens to understand them...
I also stipulated that the characters can all read and write (rarer skills in the Shadowrun world when so many people use icons and pictograms) to emphasise their education and outlook.

Core skills
The skills of athletics and stealth are called upon very frequently in Shadowrun. Characters wanting to run, swim, climb, crawl, escape from handcuffs, dive through windows - all use their athletics.
Similarly, characters trying to sneak across a compound, through a warehouse, hide in shadows, palm an object or carry out some other task unobserved would all rely on their stealth skill.
Giving the whole team a good level in both these skills means they can be reasonably successful in their endeavours, and that nobody in the team is "weak" and constantly giving the game away.
I also gave the whole team a good rating in their martial art, for two reasons.
Firstly, it again gives them a certain flexibility. Even if they are caught without weapons, they are still capable of looking after themselves in a brawl, and still make for dangerous adversaries.
Secondly, it gives them a unique group skill that adds flavour. Rather than going for one of the "standard" martial arts, I invented this new one just for them. It's only available to Tibetan monks, so it gives them a skill that only they can have and use. When used it will add interest to the campaign and hopefully become a signature part of their exploits.

Magical characters
To being with I was planning on having only physical adepts (phys-ads). Realising that I was going to limit the campaign a lot by stipulating this, I relaxed it somewhat to including all magical character types. However, all of the characters are still magical in nature (if somewhat different in flavour), giving a common theme to the campaign.

Limited funds
By severely limiting funds for the players, they could choose only the most basic of items. Again, this was partly to reinforce the character backgrounds of monastic solitude and partly to make the characters really think about what they were choosing.

Power level
Characters start with plenty of "power" in the form of points for abilities or spells, but must spread these around. This ensures a wide range of powers or spells, none of which would be at game breaking levels. By limiting spells to level 3 and lower, while still effective they are not "sure things" - even normal folk have a chance of resisting them or shaking off their effects, so the players will have to be careful about becoming reliant on them. Likewise, by limiting the adept powers to those costing 3 points or less, some of the most powerful abilities are beyond the players - but they do have the opportunity to get a wide base of different toys to play with.

Magical initiation
Initiation in Shadowrun is an "advanced" rule, published in one of the add-on expansion books - but a very commonly found one. It opens up a wide variety of expansion paths and gives far more detail to magical characters, along with more stringent requirements, greater risks and more expensive and rarer items to chase after.
By starting with every player having gone through initiation, I achieved two main objectives.
First, all the players would know "masking" - a learnt ability to hide their magical nature from others. This would fit in well with their aims and objectives, and allow them greater freedom of movement around the world. Again, by ensuring that all of the team had it, I could make sure that no one was the "weak link" in the group.
Secondly, I could stipulate that as part of their initiation, they had all sworn a magical oath to the monastery. This binds them to their beliefs and strictures in a very real and tangible way, and offered a certain amount of control over player actions. To be used carefully, and as sparingly as possible, it at least offers a chance to guide and redirect a player that's going "off the rails".

Karma
Starting with one karma pool gives the players one chance per adventure to "re-roll" a failed test - whether that be a skill check, attack or defence. It's a chance to make sure something goes the players way, and normally held back for when they're in real trouble. This is fairly common to starting characters, and means the players will have to be cautious with the situations they place themselves in.
Having 5 good karma gives them a few points to either spend to augment a successful attack or defence, or the choice to save them up and use them along with the karma awarded for completing an adventure to improve skills and attributes, or increase their magical power.

Knowledge
The points to spend on knowledge skills can be distributed as the player wishes... they could have 5 skills all at level 5, 25 skills at level 1 or any mix in between. Knowledge skills are often used to add roleplay depth to a character and details skills that don't actively improve their ability to complete an adventure, but do make them seem more real and rounded. This would be a fairly average amount of skill points for a starting character.

Active skills
As with the Knowledge skills, having about 30 points to spend on Active skills (things like combat, technical and magical skills which are actively used) would be fairly typical of a starting campaign. If not all the points were spent on active skills, they could be used to fund additional language or knowledge skills, or to play a different race type.

Now that I had some guides in place to define the characters I could work out who was going to play what.

To begin with I assigned each player a colour - these colours would match markers on their armour and equipment and until they were much further into the first adventure, would have to serve instead of their (unknown) names.

Ali - Green
My concept for Ali centred around a breaking and entering specialist. At the time I was developing this campaign, I was also watching the show "Leverage", and there was a certain amount of inspiration from one of the characters in this production. If the team needed someone to infiltrate a building, crawl through air ducts and hack the electronic keypads, then Ms Green would be the one to do it.

Lee - Red
As one of the two most experienced players, I chose Lee to be the team leader. As a consequence, I wanted to give him plenty of social skills along with the ability to manipulate social situations to the teams advantage. This would bring in many of the "softer" phys-ad abilities that are often ignored. I wanted to make sure that in as many situations that an adventure required combat or physical ability to resolve, that it was possible to talk or plan your way through a situation.

Fozzy - Purple
Fozzy has played mostly technical based characters before, or oddball mixes. This time I wanted to give him the teams "hitter" role - to make him the big, tough, macho fighter that was there to look after everyone else. This might give him room to become the big shiny hero - but I also knew that with Fozzy's unpredictable approach there was no danger of this turning into a two dimensional thump-monkey with no characterisation.

Justin - Blue
Having mentioned in our previous campaign that if his character died/retired, he wanted to try a magic user next, I decided to make Mr Blue the team mage. Having spent some of his physical adept points buying magical power, he was weaker in some regards than the rest of the team, but able to use his magic to throw fireballs, levitate team members or form glowing magical barriers of force across corridors or windows. With the low initial power levels available, this would be a good way to introduce the class to Justin, while giving him some unique powers within the team.

Jez - Yellow
For our final character, I decided to make him the team medic. Having a number of active and knowledge skills based around medicine, with some complimentary phys-ad skills, he could be relied upon to patch up other team members and keep the campaign moving, and his skills would also be useful within a roleplaying context. Again, as Jez was a very experienced player and happy in just about any role, I knew that he wouldn't become a shallow "heal-bot" character and would have plenty to contribute to the proceedings.

In the next blog, I'll detail these characters in more depth, and add more information about them and how the campaign will progress.

Well, it certainly looks like you've given this quite a bit of thought.

I have a few comments (if you're ready), though:



-In SR4, they're hackers, not deckers. This might just be me, but a lot of my groups don't fit so snugly into this group (and a lot of groups I've seen aound the site). Runner's companion, however, gives one that does:



Now, obviously, not every roll has to have its own runner delegated to it if you don't want it to - roles can be easily combined. There are, however, several approaches for filling each role:

Close Quarters Combat: Most people think cybered "Street Samurai", but there are several other ways to fill this role: Adepts and Possession-based magicians can also deal with this spectacularly, along with anybody who's taken a craploaad of Martial Arts qualities and Maneuvers. Even a Rigger (Close Combat = run you over with a tank, etc) or even a Technomancer with Echoes such as Acceleration, Biowire, Mesh Reality, and maybe Resonance Trodes.

Fire Support: The most common way to do this is by dumping points into the Firearms skill group and tacking on some cyberware or adept powers. I, however, have had quite a bit of success as a rigger with drones equipped with machine guns. Other people also like spell-slinging wizards.

Infiltration: Same deal: Sammies w/ stealth cyberware, Adepts (Traceless step is a must!), Magicians with Invisibility, or riggers with micro/chameleon'd drones.

Investigation: This is mainly legwork. Social Skills, Perception, and contacts the foundation. Riggers are useful for aerial surveillance, and mages, with assensing, spirits with Search, detection spells, etc., are very good at it. Cybered people and adepts can do casing and social questioning as well as anyone else. They more than any other build rely on high-end sensor packages.

Magical Support: Well, this one pretty much has to be a magician or mystic adept, although you could try to be a mundane character with copious amounts of Kiai training, FAB and dual-natured weapons.

Matrix Support: Any mook with a commlink (or technomancer) and hacking skils. One doesn't have to be cybered; I've seen successful adept or magician hackers before.

Negotiation: Very similar to Investigation, but more reliant on the Negotiation skill. (I mostly combine these two roles).

Transportation: Think Riggers. Riggers don't have to be cybered; I've seen adept riggers, and even some magicians. Lemme tell you, a possessed magician rigging can be formiddable indeed.

Well, that took a long time.

Thanks for your comments da Loof - they're most welcome.

In SR4 they may well be hackers and not deckers... but we're not playing that. We're firmly meshed with the SR3 rules (and I'm not going into the SR3 vs SR4 debate, at least not here *grin*) and so our campaign is also planned along those lines.

More crucially, our campaign starts on October 1st, 2055 - so we cannot play with concepts such as Technomancers and remain within the canon timeline, as the 2nd crash has not happened and caused their development. I know I've not stated that anywhere yet, but it's in the pipeline for the next few posts, where I'm going to be detailing the first run for the characters - at which point it will become immediately obvious why this date has been chosen.

Not having seen any of the 4th ed material beyond the core rules, it's interesting to see the "8 job roles" that you've quoted there. That makes a lot of sense and is a neat way of looking at things - thanks for the post! Within the context of this campaign, all of those roles are filled by team members with a magical nature, so it's quite a different style campaign to one we've had before.

Thanks again for your interest and opinions though.


*** AAAAARGH ****. I've just realised, on reading through the posts again, that I'm missing one. I must have rolled a handful of 1's on my Cut'n'paste skill check. The following post should really slot in as post #3a to make best sense.

So, I've come up with the concept for the campaign that I want to run. Just to refresh;

"The team will play a group of magical monks, engaging on missions from their secret mountain hideaway, following the directives of the enigmatic magical beings that control the order to engage in a variety of clandestine missions in locations around the world. Often sent out with minimal equipment and funds, the monks must rely on their natural skills, magical abilities, teamwork and the bizarre and fragmentary dreams inspired by the magic flowing through their hideaway to accomplish their tasks".

I've already established that the team will be based in Tibet - a land sealed away with a magical barrier that prevents nearly everyone else from gaining access. The first step was to consult with the book "Shadows over Asia" and thoroughly read the section dealing with Tibet. Most of the text here concerns the magical barrier surrounding the country and how if affects anyone trying to get through it - actual details on the country are quite sparse.

Now, in some ways that's bad as it doesn't give me much to base the campaign on - yet in other ways it's quite good, as it gives me a great deal of freedom to set out the details as I wish.

So, the second stop was to load up Firefox, point it to Wikipedia and do a bit of reading about the country. From here I started to browse links to related subjects such as religion, geography, politics, and to follow links to specific sites such as tourist information, holiday packages and immigration details. This gave me a lot more information about the country as it exists in the real world, and established a mental framework.

With Shadowrun and the real world following similar, but divergent time-lines, I could now make some educated choices about what to keep and what to discard, and have a much better idea of what makes the country tick in the Shadowrun world. I'd seen photos of Tibetans wearing their normal cultural attire, seen maps of the area, even used Googlemaps to zoom around and look at the extent of the Himalayan range, the desert-like mesas, the massive rivers, the amount of foliage and arable land. I was more aware of it's exact position in relation to surrounding countries, the political climate, the level of economic development. I felt that I had enough information to make it a living, breathing country that was believable.

With the initial research out of the way, I started to think about what would make a good introduction to the campaign. I wanted something a bit special, a bit different - and something memorable. I wanted a sense of "grandness", that the players were involved in something epic. Then a thought came to me.

Have the characters wake up in a small, dark room. They're all wearing identical kit, with near identical supplies. None of them have any identification. They're all armed and armoured. And none of them have any idea of who they are, why they're there, or where they've come from.

I wanted them involved in epic events. How much more epic can you get than being caught at ground-zero of a tactical nuclear blast?

So, I went back to my bookshelf and pulled down my old 2nd edition copy of "Bug City". This sourcebook details a secret cult summoning alien-spirits based on insect hive minds, and using the bodies of the homeless, refugees and other vulnerable people to create insect-metahuman hybrids, amassing an army to take over the world. Of course, their plan was rumbled, they were hunted down in a global effort - and in one case, in Chicago, a nuke was used to destroy the enormous super-hive that was nearly ready to disgorge thousands of "flesh-forms" and "true-forms" insect spirits. However, not all the creatures were destroyed, and in a mad rush, large portions of the city were quarantined, with the army setting up massive blockades and having shoot to kill orders.

This sounded like a magnificent start to my campaign, and also gave a new twist on the players side of things. They were going to emerge from their protective starting location some time after the blast, and find themselves in this sealed off city that had descended into anarchy. Straight away two objectives would be apparent - the need to get out of the city as conditions rapidly deteriorated, and also the need to find out who and what they were.

Given the situation, it would very rapidly become apparent that they appeared to be on their own, and with only the equipment they started with. They'd have no one to "call home to", or rely upon for help, and would really have to hit the ground running.

With this kernel of a campaign start, it was time to turn upon the characters and work out what was going on.

Ah, so, your monks are martial artists. The problem there, is that Buddhist monks are pacifists by nature.

It seems to me that you're applying Shaolin characteristics to Tibetan monks. And you're the GM, you could pull that off, by saying "it's the future! Things are different."

And then there would be the in-game explanation. Because, if you think about it, pacifistic monks surrounded by nothing but other pacifistic monks, separated from the warlike world by an impressive magical barrier, and protected by extraordinarily powerful spirits... there's not much of a reason to take the time off of your buddhist studies to study self-defense, let alone teaching entire groups how to be world-class champions capable of singlehandedly defeating scores of nonexistant enemies.

Here are a few reasons that the buddhist monks might have to pick up deadly combat skills:

Probably not to meddle with the outside world. These monestaries are self-sufficient microcosms who actively remove themselves from global politics. Even if the world tried to protect them, there's that wall. 'Sides, global politics leaves Tibet well enough alone anyway.

Perhaps, though, one of the great spirits forsaw a threat (through your newfangled divination magic) that would be so great that it would destroy life on peaceful Tibet. These Tibetan warrior monks could have been commissioned by the spirits generations in advance, either to prepare for the threat, or to go out and neutralize it before it realizes its true potential.

Or perhaps, behind its magical borders, there is a threat in Tibet already. Like the Shaolin Monks, the Buddhist monks of Tibet had trained to protect themselves and their monestary from hostile attacks. In the case of the Shaolin monks, it was to defend from formidable bandit tribes, but in your campaign, it could be anything from bandits, invading forces (but then you'd need a reason that they'd go through all that trouble to pierce the wall and invade Tibet. For a country so rooted in magic, it could be for naturally occuring veins of orichalcum, or natural abundanc of refined or radical raegants. That would cerainly prove profitable enough for a corporate invasion.)

Or perhaps Tibet would face a threat of spirits. Perhaps there are shedim, insect or blood spirits manifesting (or possessing people) all over Tibet, taking over entire monestaries. That would crtainly merit a new devotion to combat and self defense.

Or maybe it's a combination of these causes.

Or they could be studying Martial arts as a form of self enlightenment of the body. To know ones body is to know one's self.

But that's not as fun to the plot

Serious answer:
Yes, there are monks who believe that the only way to truly transcend violence is to first understand it, but that's so disparate from the monks of today, who have remained consistant in their ways for who-knows-how-long, that they wouldn't move from shunning violence to inviting it into their monestary without a solid reason, such as the examples I offered above.

Here's the first background I wrote - for Ali the B&E specialist.
Dangun Xi - Ms Green

Background
1. Where is your character from?
A small farmstead south of the town of Keba Liecun, in the south western part of Tibet.

2. Does your character have a family?
Yes, you have a twin brother Yulgok. Both your parents were killed by Chinese troops when you were young, and you were taken to the local monastery and raised there. You are unaware of any other brothers or sisters, or members of your family.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background?
Tibetan - raised at the Traduk monastery in Yarlung valley, since the age of 5. Educated by the monks there you have a high level of literacy, along with a centred Buddhist outlook upon life. Aware of the threat of outside forces, notably the Chinese, upon the Tibet region, like many other Tibetans you are prepared to fight to defend yourself vigorously - and also those who find themselves in a similar situation.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
About 5'9", willowy build, fairly dark skin with dark brown eyes and raven black hair down to mid back, currently tightly braided and finished with a simple black tie made of handspun cotton. No distinguishing scars or marks. Appears to be of generic eastern Asian descent.

5. What does your character dress like?
Normally around the temple you would wear a dark coloured wraparound dress over a blouse. Undergarments are typically not worn. For prayers and formal occasions, you don the "shuba", the traditional long robe with huge elongated sleeves dyed a deep red, with a yellow sash knotted around your waist. On missions, you will of course wear clothing appropriate to your cover or emulate the local dress.

6. Does your character have physical quirks?
When nervous, you tend to massage your right hand in your left, rubbing the palm with your left thumb while your fingers cup the back of your hand

Skills Attributes and Resources
7. Where did your character learn their Active skills?
The active life in the mountains hardened your body and gave you a good degree of athleticism, and your natural poise, grace and dexterity allows you to move silently and discretely from place to place. Studying at the monastery for years, you learnt first of all Lamma, a system similar to Tai-Chi, and then when your magical nature was bought forth, moved on to Lama-Pai-Ha, the magical way. As you were growing up, your ability with electronic devices was noted, and soon you were helping people in the monastery repair phones, PDAs, televisions, car radios and many other devices. Without access to proper spares, you became quite adept at scavenging materials from old junk and recycling it. Sometimes, this required negotiation with the junk dealers and 2nd hand TV shops in the town, and a quick mind and wit to make sure you got the bargains you needed. To get to town and back with your finds, you often made use of the ancient Toyota Prius donated to the monks many years ago - only your skill with electrical systems allows the solar panels on the roof of the temple to collect enough power to keep it going. For self defence in the mountains, everyone is taught how to handle a pistol, and you know that nearly everyone you come across in the area has at least one sort of handgun in their possession. You first learnt to disguise your appearance to help you locate electronic supplies in the area.... once people got to know you, they often realised that you really needed them to make things work and the prices rose - so you started to mask your appearance so you could shop at "normal" prices. Realising you had a bit of a talent for this, you developed your skills further. When your magical training started to reveal your natural talents and skills, it soon became clear that you would often be called upon to enter areas covertly. Here your fine control and manipulation of electronic devices leant itself readily to the manipulation of lockpicks and tools for gaining entry.

8. Where did your character learn their knowledge skills?
Your skill with electronics and the requirements of this trade led to you learning about various devices and manufacturers from around the world - in the course of which you learnt much about the history of economics and global trends in manufacturing. As a child you spent hours studying the fine woven rugs and delicate paintings in the monastery and learnt much about art, painting and technique - though this proved somewhat frustrating as you seem to lack any natural talent in this area. However, from the study of classical art, you moved onto classical music, which you also enjoy. Finally, an interest in escapology and restraints stemmed from your training and practice at escape and evasion around the training grounds.

9. Where did your character get his goodies?
Having been raised as a Buddhist living in a holy temple, you have very few personal belongings. A small collection of classical works on chips, a few reproductions of particularly pleasing examples of art - mostly studies of the natural world, some hand woven rugs or items of clothing - these are the things you would call your own. You don't really aim to collect material things, having much more important matters on your mind.

10. Where does your character live?
For several years you lived at the Traduk monastery - from when you were bought there at age 5 until you were 24. From the age of 20, you were being specially trained by some of the senior monks, tested and put through tougher and tougher trials. At 24 you were deemed "ready" and given a pack of supplies, shown a map of the land and told to make a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, where your destiny would become clear.

11. Who are your character’s contacts?
Any of the monks around Traduk would know and recognise you, and offer aid and support to you in hour of need. Beyond that, your face is well know to the shop keepers at Keba Liecun, who can often source parts and supplies for you - at a price. Beyond that, you know little of the outside world, and can't really count on anyone to help you.

12. Who are your character’s enemies?
To the best of your knowledge, you have no direct enemies. Life is hard enough in the highlands of Tibet without seeking foes from your fellow Tibetans, and the mana cloud has served to keep most outsiders where they belong. The Chinese would be interested in stomping all over you, just because of what you are and represent - but it wouldn't be anything personal.

13. How did your character learn magic?
At the monastery, after several years of training, you were taught the exercises and methods to centre your Chi and harness your inner potential to provide the power and control needed to accomplish your many feats. For several years you made fine progress - unlike your brother, who seemed to have great difficulty and trouble with his training - something that caused a great deal of worry for you. However, at the age of 19, his powers of sorcery burst forth when he saved a number of students from death during an earthquake with one of his spells, and since then his training has been adjusted to follow his new path, upon which he has run at speed.

Personality
14. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
Likes: a calm, rational and orderly life, with time to listen to fine music and appreciate beauty, the chance to tinker with devices and make them work, the chance to help out those less fortunate than yourself.
Dislikes: oppression and intolerance, the actions and resultant chaos of dictators and the selfish. Fast flowing water.... you have some horrible memory of nearly drowning as a child, and have always feared being submerged or having to swim in fast flowing rivers or the like. People who challenge your competence - whether because you are female, or Asian.. or both?

15. What is your character’s moral code?
You have a firm understanding of right and wrong, and clearly understand the difference between "right" and "legal". You hate the injustice that has been forced upon your country by the Chinese for instance. You also understand that sometimes you have to follow a path less smooth to achieve good for the greater part or majority - though you don't like having to choose and decide when the individual will suffer for the many.

16. Does your character have goals?
To find out more about the secret sect that you belong to... you have no doubt about their motives, and you can sense the rightness and need for the actions you take - but they are still a mystery to you. That probably means working hard to follow the directives of those above you so that you can rise through the ranks to have the deeper truth revealed to you.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community). Taking "refuge in the triple gem" has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist. Due to the situation you now find yourself in, your beliefs are now changing somewhat.

18. Does your character have personality quirks?
You hate the inference that you cannot do something... especially if there seems to be any bias in the accusation. Though generally calm and thoughtful, this is your "blind spot" - something guaranteed to get on your nerves and irritate you, and sometimes make you perform rash or even dangerous actions.

Here's the second character background for the team leader - Mr Red

Dosan Han - Mr Red

Background
1. Where is your character from?
You were born in Lhasa, and grew up there until you were 16 years old.

2. Does your character have a family?
Your father was a geologist at the university of Lhasa, and still teaches there, while your mother is a lecturer in communications and international relations at the same establishment.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background?
Natural born Tibetan.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
About 5'5", average build though obviously athletic, dark skin with brown eyes so dark they are almost black and black hair parted on the left side, of roughly neck length. No distinguishing scars or marks. Appears to be of generic eastern Asian descent.

5. What does your character dress like?
At home equally in either western style dress - formal or casual, along with traditional Tibetan and Asian clothing. You're most comfortable in smart casual clothing though - a holdover from your days of study at a private school.

6. Does your character have physical quirks?
No particular quirks or mannerisms.

Skills Attributes and Resources
7. Where did your character learn their Active skills?
Your social skills - negotiation, leadership, etiquette and interrogation were mostly imparted to you by your mother - an adroit manipulator and fine teacher. Your skill with your pistol was gained from membership of the school shooting team, at which you performed adequately but without distinction. The area you lived in gave you a base level of fitness and hardiness, but you also enjoyed track events, and were more successful here than your efforts in the shooting. Your skill with martial arts were taught to you once you had arrived at the monastery, along with the hand-eye coordination and dexterity involved in using throwing weapons.

8. Where did your character learn their knowledge skills?
An interest in politics, history and political science came from studies directed by your mother - while an interest in archaeology, anthropology and an appreciation for imported food and wine - particularly from Italy, came from your father

9. Where did your character get his goodies?
You have no particular items of interest or memory. Since coming to the monastery, you tend not to set store by material items. Back at your parents house you have a few bottles of fine wine stored in the cellar slowly aging, and a number of chips with your library of texts regarding your areas of interest.

10. Where does your character live?
From birth to 16 you lived with your parents in Lhasa. From 17 you moved to a place offered to you at the Traduk monastery and stayed there until you were 24. Only last year you were admitted to a new order, and made a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, where you have lived in isolation since.

11. Who are your character’s contacts?
You keep in irregular contact with your parents, writing long and detailed letters to them perhaps once or twice a year. Otherwise, you have no particular contacts of note from your early life, having not made efforts to maintain contact.

12. Who are your character’s enemies?
To the best of your knowledge, you have no direct enemies. Life is hard enough in the highlands of Tibet without seeking foes from your fellow Tibetans, and the mana cloud has served to keep most outsiders where they belong. The Chinese would be interested in stomping all over you, just because of what you are and represent - but it wouldn't be anything personal.

13. How did your character learn magic?
At the age of 16 while engaged in a debating competition at your school, you were spotted by a visiting monk. After speaking with both your parents in private for some considerable time, you were told that you had a gift and great potential power. You were withdrawn from school and sent to the monastery, where you began training in the control of your voice and body, learning to finely control and harness your natural power.

Personality
14. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
You like fine food (though not to excess), wine (the same) and clothing - in fact most luxury items... but not for the hedonistic reasons that most do. You seem to have a love of things "well made" and created with obvious skill, love or attention to detail. Your greatest dislikes are the abuse of power and position - the lessons your learnt from your parents are replete with examples of where power corrupts, and absolute power leads to atrocities, horror and abuse on a scale that beggars belief - over and over again throughout history.

15. What is your character’s moral code?
You have a firm understanding of right and wrong, and clearly understand the difference between "right" and "legal". Aware that your talent for manipulation and social control could easily lead you down a dark path, you try to control your abilities and ensure that others are free to walk their own path where you can. Of course, you accept that you need to bring order to chaos at times, and that to prevent the type of horrors you have read and studied, sometimes the weak and misguided need to be.... helped.... to make better choices.

16. Does your character have goals?
A strong ambition you have is to make a difference - at some time and place. You've always wanted to have the knowledge that at some crucial juncture in history, that you would make a stand and be at the right place at the right time to guide people into a better life.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
You were bought up in a Confucisianist household - The basic teachings of Confucianism stress the importance of moral development of the individual so that the state can be governed by moral virtue rather than by the use of coercive laws. Your parents were always willing to teach you why things should or should not be done, and generally did a good enough job that they never had to punish you for wrong-doing.

18. Does your character have personality quirks?
You've always felt uneasy around dogs - a distant memory of being chased by some ravening hound through the streets of Lahore may explain some of this, but even well trained dogs that exhibit no sign of aggression make you feel nervous and unsettled.

Teggae Jiruk - Mr Yellow

Background
1. Where is your character from?
Ngari - a largeish town in Western Tibet

2. Does your character have a family?
Yes, though you have not seen them since you were eight years old. They live in Ngari, and from what you recall your father was a carpenter, who turned out beautiful carvings and work for temples and monasteries, while your mother was a weaver and rug maker. You were taken away - willingly and with blessings - by a travelling monk who spotted your magical potential, and spent many years travelling with him.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background?
Tibetan. From the ages of 8 until just after you were 20, you have travelled the length and breadth of Tibet with your mentor, visiting nearly every town and hundreds of villages and farms. You have seen a wide variety of different cultural influences from all over the country - the Chinese to the east, the influence of Bangladesh and India to the south, the Kashmir to the west, and the Russian states to the north.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
About 5'9", slender build with very light brown skin. Light brown eyes and dark brown hair down to shoulders, currently tied into a tight ponytail, bound with a simple black tie made of handspun cotton. No distinguishing scars or marks. Appears to be of generic eastern Asian descent.

5. What does your character dress like?
Normally you dress in a traditional manner - a dark coloured baggy set of leggings with a woolen wrap over your top half. This is normally worn with only one shoulder covered, and during work is shucked off to hang from the belt leaving you unclothed on the upper half. Undergarments are typically not worn. For prayers and formal occasions, you don the "shuba", the traditional long robe with huge elongated sleeves dyed a deep red, with a white and gold sash knotted around your waist.

6. Does your character have physical quirks?
You tend to drum your fingers, most often on your thighs, creating a soft "drumbeat" to music only you can hear. Quite musical, it varies often, as you recall the songs and dances of the areas you have travelled through. Apparently some people find this quite irritating....

Skills Attributes and Resources
7. Where did your character learn their Active skills?
While travelling with your mentor Narendi, you learnt much in the way of medicine and care, as he travelled from area to area as a travelling doctor and teacher. You learnt how to learn - how to find out about an area, and it's resources, what it's problems are, how the people work and play. You also learnt how to teach - basic hygiene, care of teeth, the tending of simple wounds - things useful to uneducated farmers in isolated areas. With years of practice you also are a dab hand at using a computer - your master had a battered old "lap-top" computer along with a folding solar cell and a hand crafted box with many "deeveedees" in, containing vast stores of medical information from an old fashioned thing called a "tinternet". You're not quite sure how these relate to the world as you have no memory of Tibet without the confining maya cloud, but you know much of the dangers that may face you outside from extensive reading and research. Your treatments were not constrained to people - a way with animals and a compassion for all living things led you to treat wounded dogs, farm beasts - even wild birds and creatures. Last of all, you are fairly adept at slinging around a shotgun - a weapon designed to intimidate and stop problems - though you are loathe to use it against living creatures unless there is a clear danger to you or others.

8. Where did your character learn their knowledge skills?
All of your other skills and interests are learnt from the "tinternet", on a variety of medical subject - battlefield procedures from a war in a gulf, toxic backgrounds, the use of plants, the use of medicine to solve crimes at somewhere called "NCIS"... the material on the laptop seemed to come from a variety of sources, and some of it seemed dubious and required extensive cross referencing and validation - and sometimes testing - to prove it's worth.

9. Where did your character get his goodies?
You have no possessions of your own from your travels, save your personal medic kit. Your travels, on foot, through some of the most rugged terrain found meant you travelled light, carrying only the essentials you needed. In your kit however, are plants and animal extracts from all over the country that solve a variety of ailments.

10. Where does your character live?
Until 8 you lived in a small and cramped house that also functioned as your parents workshops. From 8 until 20 you lived wherever you walked to that day - sometimes a farm, sometimes a town, sometimes a sheep pen or a cave on some windswept mountain. At age 20 though, Narendi took you to the monastery at Traduk, took you to see one of the senior monks and then calmly mentioned that your training with him was complete, and he was leaving you here. Without another word, or a backwards glance, he turned and left, and you've never seen him again. Slightly unsettled by this, you started to study at the monastery. You helped everyone in the local area with health care and medical support, while your lessons mostly seemed to centre in the training of the martial arts and working with others to help them develop and strengthen their skills. At 24 you were sent from the Monastery to Mount Kailash - having been told again that your training at this part of your life was now complete.

11. Who are your character’s contacts?
Narendi became more than a travelling monk to you - he became father, teacher, confident, sounding board and friend. It hurt you deeply when he seemingly abandoned you - up until that point you know that you would each have given your lives for the other - but now? You're not quite so sure. The order of monks at Traduk are all known to you, and again you're sure that they would offer help and support if you needed it. Beyond that, you are know, at least vaguely to thousands of people across the country, and if they remembered the wandering monks, you know that you would have a room and food for the night almost anywhere.

12. Who are your character’s enemies?
You have no real enemies - a peaceful man, you have tried not to cause dissent anywhere you have travelled, and so far have been successful.

13. How did your character learn magic?
Your mentor Narendi spotted your talent and worked at showing you how to channel Chi from you into those wounded, hurt or in pain, how to relieve their pain and make them whole again. At the monastery, they further enhanced this ability to help others, showing you have to aid others in their trials and challenges by using your Chi to augment their power. Last of all, your most recent training shows you how to redirect your Chi internally to where you need it most to keep yourself healthy.

Personality
14. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
Likes: travelling, seeing new places, helping people.
Dislikes: confrontation, violence, abuse and cruelty, exploitation.

15. What is your character’s moral code?
Some of your code comes from the texts you have studied - something that appeared to be a guiding force to the people that wrote many of them - "First, do no harm". Along with your cultural tendency towards calm, measured and balanced action, this leads you to consider your options carefully and with thought. You dislike the taking of life or causing of harm, though you can accept that sometimes it is necessary to achieve a greater goal - or to put an end to suffering either directly or indirectly.

16. Does your character have goals?
You would like to know what lays ahead - what ulterior motives would lead your mentor to train you for 12 years and then leave without a second thought his pupil in the hands of others... who then trained you and did exactly the same with a third group of monks.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
The sanctity of life and personal choice, responsibility and moral behaviour. You have seen enough in your travels to know that man must work hard to achieve enlightenment - in fact man must work hard to be human. Without effort, it is all to easy to slide back into the realms of the animal and observe only your base instincts.

18. Does your character have personality quirks?
You have a tendency to if not panic, then at least be shocked by a sudden outburst of violence, and often find yourself at a disadvantage because of this in fights and confrontations.

Wonhyo Tan - Mr Purple

Background
1. Where is your character from?
The eastern mountain ranges of Tibet, bordering with China

2. Does your character have a family?
Of a sort... according to records, you were found abandoned in an overturned truck by a border patrol, and taken in by the soldiers family. It is suspected that your family were fleeing from China when they were attacked by military forces, and only luck allowed you to survive.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background?
Tibetan/chinese origin. Given your meta-type, it is reasonable to assume that your family was fleeing persecution by the Chinese government, into the more tolerant Tibetan plateau.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
About 6'0", solidly built with swarthy light brown skin. Physique is imposing with clearly defined muscles and almost no visible body fat. Clear green eyes and medium brown hair down to shoulders, currently tied into a tight ponytail, bound with a simple black tie made of handspun cotton. No distinguishing scars or marks. Appears to be of generic eastern Asian descent

5. What does your character dress like?
While growing up you were nearly always found in combat dress / fatigues - sturdy, hard wearing and practical clothing, in a variety of designs. Though you will adapt to the circumstances around you, given no external demands you're happiest in a pair of combat trousers, a dense-weave shirt and a vest with several pockets.

6. Does your character have physical quirks?
Sometimes without thinking about it, you tend to close your eyes while doing repetitive tasks, doing them by feel, or sound, or somehow just "sensing" your environment. You think this hones your skills and makes you less reliant on sight, but you know that it can weird other people out a bit.

Skills Attributes and Resources
7. Where did your character learn their Active skills?
Your adoptive parents never hid your background from you, and were aware of your non-human nature. You grew up knowing of the fear and hatred often directed at meta-humans, and that you needed to defend yourself from this. As such you learnt at an early age how to fight, and once you reached puberty often spent long weeks on patrol with your foster father - learning the skills needed to survive in the mountains, to shoot, set traps, hunt using a bow and to fight at close quarters with a blade.

8. Where did your character learn their knowledge skills?
Having no formal education, your skills are learnt entirely from observation and experience - the way the mountains fold, and where rivers run down them, the plants you find in each area and whether they are safe to eat, or what they show, how to read the signs of human inhabitation and settlement, and what types of soils and materials react with their environment and the activities of man. The only skills not gained in this fashion is your love... if not obsession, with the art of swordsmanship. Your small collection of personal belongings contains about 40 chips all stuffed full of pirated and copied films, documentaries and texts about ANYTHING to do with swordsmanship.

9. Where did your character get his goodies?
Other than your bag of chips and sword, you don't really own much. The sword was made at the mountain, as part of a week long ritual that marked the end of your training, and took every ounce of your skill, determination and concentration to make. As far as you're concerned, that sword is part of you, and if there is one thing guaranteed to make you lose your temper it's someone trying to interfere, damage, steal or otherwise mess around with it.

10. Where does your character live?
From when you were rescued to just after you were 20, you lived in various guard barracks and patrol outposts along the eastern border. The mana cloud stopped nearly all entry or exit into the country, but occasionally someone would get through, and it was your foster fathers job to stop them. When you were 20, and accompanying a patrol, you came across a small force of chinese trying to escape from the area towards the cloud, with a badly beaten monk tied to a pole, being carried by several of the troops. A fierce fight erupted, during which your foster father was crippled. A killing rage overtook you, and when the fight was over, all the enemy were dead while you were covered in their blood. The monk, once rescued, arranged for your crippled father, mother and yourself to travel to the monastery, where you settled. Two years ago, you were sent to Mount Kailash, to join a new order.

11. Who are your character’s contacts?
Your foster father and mother live at the monastery at Traduk, along the southern border. You have no other personal contacts.

12. Who are your character’s enemies?
The Chinese. All of them.

13. How did your character learn magic?
In the long days that followed the attack on your patrol, while the monk was guiding you to Traduk, he explained much about the mysteries of the body and the mind, and started to train you to control your temper, your Chi and your abilities. This training continued at the monastery, and it soon became clear that you could sense the spirits and ancestors, and strike at the evil forces of mana with your will. You excelled at combat and the use of force, but did not appear to have any other skills or magical direction. You know that some of your teachers are concerned over your potential to kill, and they have spent many hours meditating and trying to teach you restraint.

Personality
14. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
Likes: practical activity, working hard and raising an honest sweat. Physical challenges and tests.
Dislikes: standing around and talking when there's work to be done, withdrawing from a situation where violence is being directed at those less able or willing to deal with it. The use of state power or organised bigotry to harm others.

15. What is your character’s moral code?
Generally, live and let live, treat others as you wish to be treated, and a certain longing sense of honour absorbed from the countless ninja/samurai/sword fighting films. However, you're quite willing to meet violence with more violence and to fight, and viciously, for what you need to. The endless hours of training at the monastery have taught you restraint and tolerance to others and you certainly wouldn't goad or start a fight just for the sake of it - but you have no compunction at all about ending one started by someone else.

16. Does your character have goals?
You know how lucky you were to have been taken in by your foster father following the attack - and how much your foster parents cared for you. You feel that you owe a debt, that should be repaid... not to your parents in particular (who are both cared for at the monastery), but to the greater balance. Should the opportunity arise in which you can carry out a similar act of personal kindness or compassion, you feel it would help repay this debt.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
No formal adherence to either Buddhism, Confucius or any other formal religion or system of belief - but you have a personal code of honour and behaviour, and believe in an overall system of balance - ying and yang in eternal motion.

18. Does your character have personality quirks?
From experience with trying new plants and foods while out on patrol, you have a tendency to test new foods cautiously and in a ritualistic manner... a sniff, a poke, a tear, a test on the tip of the tongue, a small part put inside the lip and left for a minute to see if it tingles... this can get you odd looks at a restaurant, but you know it could be the difference between life and death in the wilderness.

Yulgok Xi - Mr Blue

Background
1. Where is your character from?
A small farmstead south of the town of Keba Liecun, in the south western part of Tibet.

2. Does your character have a family?
Yes, you have a twin sister Dangun. Both your parents were killed by Chinese troops when you were young, and you were taken to the local monastery and raised there. You are unaware of any other brothers or sisters, or members of your family.

3. Does your character have an ethnic background?
Tibetan - raised at the Traduk monastery in Yarlung valley, since the age of 5. Educated by the monks there you have a high level of literacy, along with a centred Buddhist outlook upon life. Aware of the threat of outside forces, notably the Chinese, upon the Tibet region, like many other Tibetans you are prepared to fight to defend yourself vigorously - and also those who find themselves in a similar situation.

Appearance
4. What does your character look like?
About 5'10", willowy build, fairly dark skin with dark brown eyes and raven black hair down to mid back, currently tightly braided and finished with a simple black tie made of handspun cotton. No distinguishing scars or marks. Appears to be of generic eastern Asian descent.

5. What does your character dress like?
Normally around the temple you would wear a dark coloured baggy set of leggings with a woolen wrap over your top half. This is normally worn with only one shoulder covered, and during work is shucked off to hang from the belt leaving you unclothed on the upper half. Undergarments are typically not worn. For prayers and formal occasions, you don the "shuba", the traditional long robe with huge elongated sleeves dyed a deep red, with a yellow sash knotted around your waist. On missions, you will of course wear clothing appropriate to your cover or emulate the local dress.

6. Does your character have physical quirks?
You have a tendency to stare, unblinking, at something you are studying. Often for several minutes at a time. If you are disturbed, other people can often recoil from the look on your face, as your pupils tend to dilate a lot, and your eyes take on a funny sheen from being so dry.

Skills Attributes and Resources
7. Where did your character learn their Active skills?
The active life in the mountains hardened your body and gave you a good degree of athleticism, and your natural poise, grace and dexterity allows you to move silently and discretely from place to place. Studying at the monastery for years, you learnt first of all Lamma, a system similar to Tai-Chi, and then when your magical nature was bought forth, moved on to Lama-Pai-Ha, the magical way. Once your magical skills had been developed slightly, you spent many hours wandering around the foothills, examining the flows of mana and looking for pure concentrations of magical Chi, and learnt how to use these relics in rituals of power. You also spent many hours in meditation, studying the astral forms of creatures, plants and those around you, studying form and function and learning how to sense and read their power. Often travelling tens, if not hundreds of miles from the monastery in search of fresh areas of unspoilt mana, you learnt how to ride and maintain an old petrol powered motorbike of indeterminate age - and how to handle an equally ancient 8 bore shotgun of frightening power (and equally fearsome kick). Your skill with a whip allowed you to entangle and catch small prey without harming it, so you could study it carefully and observe the flow of mana through it.

8. Where did your character learn their knowledge skills?
All of your skills were learnt at the monastery, and helped focus your thoughts and understanding of the flow of mana. From a background into the uses and theories of mana itself, to the different types of meditative trances used around the world by different cultures, the nature of the "occult" and the different religions and belief systems that follow or use them, your studies showed you a more complex and deep world where the flow of Chi can be harnessed for many means. Even buildings and constructions such as henges and pyramids have a flow of mana, like living creatures - but often none so clearly show this as the bodies of trained martial artists. A battered digital camera allows you to capture sights from all of these areas for study and postulation later.

9. Where did your character get his goodies?
Your room back at the mountain is covered, wall to wall and floor to ceiling in prints from all around the world, and all over Tibet. Showing ancient burial sites, natural creatures, moonrises and sunsets, auras and auroras, life and death, they form a complex study of the flow of mana through the world. In the corner of your room is a simple mattress, pillow and blanket, and a small rucksack containing a few sample tubs, tubes, boxes and rudimentary tools - mostly hand made - for collecting specimens that intrigue you.

10. Where does your character live?
For several years you lived at the Traduk monastery - from when you were bought there at age 5 until you were 24. From the age of 20, you were being specially trained by some of the senior monks, tested and put through tougher and tougher trials. At 24 you were deemed "ready" and given a pack of supplies, shown a map of the land and told to make a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, where your destiny would become clear.

11. Who are your character’s contacts?
Any of the monks around Traduk would know and recognise you, and offer aid and support to you in hour of need. You also made a friend for life when you rescued a young couple from Lhasa from almost certain death during a mudslide in the rainy season while in the north of the country looking for specimens. You know they have not long given birth to their first child, named after you in memory for your bravery and kindness.

12. Who are your character’s enemies?
To the best of your knowledge, you have no direct enemies. Life is hard enough in the highlands of Tibet without seeking foes from your fellow Tibetans, and the mana cloud has served to keep most outsiders where they belong. The Chinese would be interested in stomping all over you, just because of what you are and represent - but it wouldn't be anything personal.

13. How did your character learn magic?
At the monastery, after several years of training, you were taught the exercises and methods to centre your Chi and harness your inner potential to provide the power and control needed to accomplish your many feats. It was a year after your training first began before the main part of your power was uncovered - and it gave you cause for great relief. Up until this point you had appeared to be lagging behind in development and your understanding of magic - your powers were fewer than others of your age or training, and appeared limited. Your sister appeared to gain more power daily, while you were left behind - which would have caused tension between you and jealousy, had this not upset and dismayed her almost as much as it did for you. However, when you were 19, a violent earthquake struck the area and a mighty statue toppled in the courtyard, falling from it's plinth onto a group of young acolytes below. With no knowledge of how, your outstretched hand created a barrier of energy over them, deflecting the statue to fall elsewhere and shatter into a thousand pieces. Since then, your training was redirected, and a whole world of magical power, spirits and spells have been opened up to you. The training allows you to summon spirits of the elements and of the ancestors, along with casting spells of all five stems of Wujen - though you have a great deal of difficulty harnessing the elements of earth for some reason. Your mentors have indicated that this is because your balance is not yet centred, and warned you of a darkness that stains your soul - they seem very concerned over this and preach often and long about the need for balance and equilibrium in your approach to and use of magic.

(cont...)
Personality
14. What are your character’s likes and dislikes?
You love to study magic - the flow of mana from one place to another, the way it can enhance and change the body and create effects in the physical world. You have studied the Maya cloud for many years, watching it's endlessly changing patterns and powers as it seals off the borders to the country.

15. What is your character’s moral code?
You have a firm understanding of right and wrong, and clearly understand the difference between "right" and "legal". You hate the injustice that has been forced upon your country by the Chinese for instance. You also understand that sometimes you have to follow a path less smooth to achieve good for the greater part or majority. Though you don't like having to choose and decide when the individual will suffer for the many, you can do so without having bad dreams afterwards, knowing that you work towards the greater balance. You also strive for balance with your use of mana - you can feel your Chi become tainted and out of balance if you cast many destructive spells in a short time, but also equally out of balance if you use to many spells of manipulation or transformation without a counterpoint.

16. Does your character have goals?
You would most like to truly understand the Maya cloud - what it is, how it works, why it's there and who created it.

17. Does your character have personal beliefs?
The foundations of Buddhist tradition and practice are the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma (the teachings), and the Sangha (the community). Taking "refuge in the triple gem" has traditionally been a declaration and commitment to being on the Buddhist path and in general distinguishes a Buddhist from a non-Buddhist. Other practices may include renouncing conventional living and becoming a monastic, support of the monastic community, meditation, cultivation of mindfulness and wisdom, study of scriptures, physical exercises, devotion and ceremonies, or invocation of bodhisattvas - that is "heroic-minded one (satva) for enlightenment (bodhi).". More than your sister, who has not travelled as much as you, you are aware of how well treated and cared for you are at the monastery, and appreciate your position within Tibetan society. You know that the peasant farmers look up to you with a touch of fear and wonder - especially if they become aware of your ability to contact their ancestors, and you strive to make sure you don't treat them as peasants or servants - after all, you know from your studies that mana flows through them just as it does through you... they just don't have the control over it you do, for which you are fortunate, blessed and bound to use well.

18. Does your character have personality quirks?
For some reason - maybe the long study of mana, or just a natural blind-spot - you just don't seem to get technology. Your sister tries to explain how this bit of TV works, how the electricity fingles through the flurgenbod, xi wan connects to the enrique du eeckret... but it's like she's speaking a language you've never even heard of, let alone understand. In Tibet, this is no great drawback - after nearly half a century of isolation there is no matrix, very little new technology and much work is done the old fashioned way. However, outside the country, things could get complicated really fast.

A players view... 1/2

Here's a little story that my wife (Miss Green) wrote after our first play session... it should give some idea of what they got up to!

I woke with a start. I was standing in near-darkness, with the only light from five small glowing sticks attached to the shoulder of my body armour and that of the other four figures in the small room. I peered out through my helmet’s faceplate around the yellowy piece of paper stuck to the glass, or whatever it was, at the three figures of around my height and one a few inches shorter. The dim lighting showed up a small tag attached to the armours of the others, in purple, yellow and blue, with the shorter one being marked with red. I peeled off the Post-it note from my faceplate and looked down, to see that I was tagged green.

I looked at the note, and it had a crude drawing of a person in armour, and a picture of a gun, and a big “No!”. So, don’t shoot the people in armour, huh? Since I’m one of them, I can live with that. I shifted position a little, and as I saw that at least two of the others had rucksacks on their backs, I felt mine shift slightly as well. Perhaps it had some information in as to what we were doing here?

Yellow had moved faster than me, and had already unslung his rucksack and was searching through it. Blue, and I, were a little slower as we holstered the guns we’d been holding. Blue and Yellow had been holding things I recognised as shotguns, and I’d been carrying a pistol. Red, apart from a turn of the head to scan the room, hadn’t moved at all, but had on the ubiquitous backpack and carried a pistol. Purple had moved over to the closed door of the windowless room, and appeared to be listening. He was holding what appeared to be a sword of some sort, and it looked very well made in the poor light.

First thing that Yellow had pulled out was what appeared to be a large med-kit, followed by a smaller, obviously personal version, and then he held up a necklace with a symbol dangling from it similar to a straight stick with something curving around it.

“Anyone else got one of these?” Having had a quick dig through mine, I said not, and Blue also denied it, but held out a small amber figurine that I recognised as a Buddha on a thong. I continued to search my backpack, and it contained various items, including rat-packs, canteens full of water, a sleeping bag and a couple of changes of camouflage clothing. We all also seemed to have the smaller medi-kit, although Yellow had found an oddly marked card in his which he attached to the outside of his armour, obviously feeling it to be of importance.

Whilst I’d been slowly looking for clues as to where we were – and who I was – Yellow was being pro-active and asked Purple, still at the door, if he’d mind if he had a look in Purple’s backpack. Looking at the others as I repacked mine, Purple had the generic stuff and nothing at all extra that I could see. Blue had his Buddha and a rather nice looking bull-whip. I had a set of small tools that I immediately identified as lockpicks, a length of climbing rope and the appropriate climbing gear to match, and what looked like a small computer. There was also a well-made jewellery box containing a fine silver chain with a tiny diamond-looking pendant on. I left that in its box for now.

Red still hadn’t moved or spoken at all, so we ignored him for now.

Having ascertained that none of us knew who we were or why we were here, and that the armour and guns suggested we were in danger, we agreed to keep the full armoured suits on for now. There appeared to be nothing else in the room but the four of us and Red, so Purple tried to open the door. It appeared jammed, but not locked, and with a hefty shove, it opened into a dim corridor with openings to both our left and right. As we turned into the corridor with the non-working emergency lighting, a shiny silver panel covering more than a doorway-sized piece of wall appeared ahead of us, and I looked behind to see the bottom of a flight of stairs heading upwards.

Warily at first, then, once we were sure the area was unoccupied, we discovered a small basement area with several mainly-empty storage rooms. Some of them had crates in containing long-life packaged foodstuffs. Red had joined us during this searching, although he had body language that suggested that he was going to walk off just as soon as he thought it was safe to do so. The silver panel had a box next to it with a strip around that looked like it was supposed to light up, but like everything else, it was dark. I glanced at it, realised there was no power, and headed off towards the stairs.

I was called back, as one of the others asked if anyone knew anything about stuff with lots of tiny wires. I think Purple had been persuaded to lever the front off the wall-box, and they were trying to see what it did. I headed back reluctantly – did it matter what it did? It couldn’t do that with no power! I looked at the circuit diagram now visible, and considered for a moment. I still didn’t know what it did, but I knew that that bit was to channel power, and that bit was to relay presses of buttons, and that bit kept the other two together. I shrugged – I’d hoped to find out more about myself here, but it seemed futile.

Yellow, with the big medkit, was obviously the group person to keep us healthy. Purple had a sword, he must be there for hitting stuff. Blue had a whip, and had tested it, and knew how to use it – he must be a back-up stuff-hitter. What was my role? Why was I here? I’d thought I was the person to deal with technology, but it seemed not.

Together, with the potential of the basement explored, we headed for the stairs, and came up into a large rectangular room with one long side wall completely made of windows. The room was lined with rows of shelves with a wide variety of things on, and at the other end to us were a row of …things – seats next to small boxes was all I could see from here in front of some doors to the outside. We looked around the silent room for a while, noticing the door in the wall opposite the windows marked as “Staff Only”, and then I think it was Mr. Yellow realised what was wrong with the outside.

It appeared to be a pedestrian zone, with a row of trees set to give the place… whatever a row of trees is supposed to do. The trees ran along parallel to the big wall of windows, and those nearest us were healthiest. Those down towards the front of the mini-mart were almost denuded of leaves and appeared to be dying. They all appeared to have almost been struck with a great wind, as they were all curved over away from the tills near the doors, as if they’d been sucked towards our end of the shop, or blown from that end.

A players view... 2/2

Part 2 of Ali's narrative.

We headed down the aisles of goods, using them to hide us from anyone in the street, not that we could see anyone at all out there, you understand, and headed through into the staff area. It had a basic food preparation area, a row of lockers, some tables and chairs, ladies and gents toilets, and only a few small windows. I looked at the board with the employee photos on with interest. Who was I? Could I sneak into the ladies toilets, slip off my helmet and find out? Not yet.

Being curious as to what was going on, I attempted to sneak down to the front of the shop, and picked up a selection of newspapers, and took them back to the Staff, or Safe, area. I’d just settled down to start skimming the first one, a Chicago Tribune dates 1st October, 2055, as Mr. Yellow approached with a notepad and some pens from in the store. He asked us all to draw a figure in armour and a gun. I looked at my post-it note that I’d moved to the breastplate of my armour, and understood. Turned out that it was Mr. Red, and he had the notepad and pen in his backpack to prove it. With nothing else to guide us, Mr. Red was declared the leader.

Then Mr. Yellow made a disturbing discovery. His marked card was filling up. He explained that it was divided into sections and section one was dark but the others were clear when we’d woken. Since we’d come up here, the second section was darkening. He, and we, felt that that was a Bad Thing, and so we grabbed whatever useful items we could think of, and hot-footed it back down into the room where we’d woken.

The torches and cushions made it a bit more comfortable, but we were all understandably reluctant to crack our suits. In the end, having continued watching the card, Mr. Yellow noted that it wasn’t getting darker down here, so we were probably safe, and we started adding water to a chosen flavour of rat-pack each and grabbing a drink, although with helmets removed only. Sadly, we really didn’t trust the food around us, which was a pity, since the fresh stuff upstairs still mainly was.

The others, as evinced by their voices, were all male, and we all looked to be of Asian decent with long hair, neatly braided and tied back out of the way. None of us matched anyone on the employees’ board upstairs. We were not from around here. However, Mr. Blue and I looked very much alike, although he’s an inch taller. Wonder if we’re related? Anyway – hungry – dinner!

A bit of a hitch occurred as Mr. Purple took one bite of his fish meal, and started to turn blue and make choking sounds. Mr. Yellow jumped up and gave him some sort of injection from the medkit, obviously knowing what he was doing even if he didn’t know he knew, and then Mr. Purple was fine. Except that he wanted to swap out the fish meals he was apparently allergic to for some others. No one else said anything, and in the end, I swapped with him, feeling a little grumpy and hoping I’d not given away a favourite.

As I ate, and after I’d re-helmeted, I read the newspapers and magazines. We were in a place called Chicago, apparently a bit of a windy city, and by the state/level of use or not of upstairs and the state of the foodstuffs, I guessed that these were yesterday’s papers.

With some guesswork to fill in the history, it appeared that in August this year, Chicago was declared to have an outbreak of a deadly virus – Mr. Yellow did know a little about the virus when he thought about it – and the central area with the virus had been quarantined. Whole city blocks had been pulled down around the edges and rubble walls with guard towers watching them blocked off any chance of escape. Stories of people being shot trying to leave were common. Equally common, if not more so, was the confusion. If we have this virus, why aren’t folks getting ill? Anyone out there know anyone who’s got this deadly contagious VITAS plague? Anyone? No one out there dying of plague? So what on earth is going on and why are we sealed off from everywhere? Why have they cut the Matrix lines so we can’t communicate with the outside? Unless it’s so that we can’t tell them the truth – we don’t think we have VITAS at all!

So, the city we’d appeared in had effectively been under siege for over six weeks. What was the plan we came up with, five random strangers who woke up in a mini-mart basement?

Let’s get out of here!