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Abschalten
Synopsis
Hole in the Heart is a gritty, film-noir style game with a South American vibe, set in Caracas near the end of Ghost Cartels. The focus will be on character development while weaving individual storylines into a single, cohesive narrative involving the entire team.

Characters
Combat Mage - "Amnesiac Sam" [APPROVED]
Rastus - Cesar de'Silva ("Smiley") [APPROVED]
Doc Chase - Kennedy Rojas ("Sonora") [APPROVED]
DrZaius - Stephen Jacobs [APPROVED]
Mister Juan - Dexter Pope [APPROVED]
MDI - Esteban Moreno ("In Coatl") [APPROVED]
Lamhslea - Chaske Mato [APPROVED]
Rystefn - Raul Blanca ("El Mono") [APPROVED]
Grimm - Alex ("Phantom")[APPROVED]
AStarshipforAnts - Harper Price[APPROVED]

Posting Format Guidelines
Time stamp with hours, day and location/neighborhood at the beginning of each post, in BOLD ORANGE
[ex.: "Monday, 17:35, Tempo Den, La Rinconada"]
All PC and NPCs names in BOLD
Text/Matrix dialogue in YELLOW
Subvocalization/thought messaging in TEAL
Thoughts in ITALICS
Astral stuff in VIOLET
Other colors may be included if everyone agrees on a need for one.

Dice Rolling:
We will use Invisible Castle's Dice Roller.
When I make a post in the IC thread I will include parenthetical statements instructing you on what to roll
[ex.: "((Roll Strength+Running +/- modifiers))"]
Roll the dice and paste both the generated results and the link here in the OOC thread.
You can modify the generated text to show the number of hits and 1's, but leave the generated results alone.
This doesn't mean I don't trust anybody, it just helps make everyone equally accountable.

House Rules
1.) Ammo Faucet - All regular (non-specialty) ammo is free.
2.) Wardrobe - You have a closet full of free clothes befitting your Lifestyle and character concept.
3.) Scatter - Use the old pre-SR4A rules as listed in the first SR4 BBB. The new ones are ass.
4.) Adept Initiation - Adepts can get another Power Point instead of a Metamagic upon initiation, if they choose to.
5.) Learning Times - Ignore the learning time test rules for skills, skill groups, complex forms, and spells. Have karma? Can spend.
6.) <this space reserved for future additions>

IC Game Thread
Mister Juan
Dexter Pope

Description
[ Spoiler ]


Background
[ Spoiler ]


Character Sheet
[ Spoiler ]


Current Loadout
[ Spoiler ]
Martin_DeVries_Institute
Esteban "Coatl" Moreno

DESCRIPTION
[ Spoiler ]


BACKGROUND
[ Spoiler ]


SHEET
[ Spoiler ]
DrZaius
Stephen Jacobs, Ork Mage

Background
[ Spoiler ]


Character Sheet

[ Spoiler ]


Current Karma : 9
Spent Karma: 0
Total Karma: 9
Rastus
Cesar de'Silva aka "Smiley"

Description
[ Spoiler ]


Background
[ Spoiler ]


Character Sheet
[ Spoiler ]


Currently Carrying
[ Spoiler ]
Doc Chase
Kennedy Rojas, aka "Sonora"

Light background/Motivation:
[ Spoiler ]


Attributes
[ Spoiler ]


Skills
[ Spoiler ]


Adept Powers
[ Spoiler ]


Metamagics
[ Spoiler ]


Contacts
[ Spoiler ]


Gear
[ Spoiler ]
Rystefn
Raul "El Mono" Blanca

Background
[ Spoiler ]


KARMA
[ Spoiler ]



Attributes
[ Spoiler ]


Skills
[ Spoiler ]


Qualities
[ Spoiler ]


Contacts
[ Spoiler ]


Resources
[ Spoiler ]


Adept Powers
[ Spoiler ]
Combat Mage
"Amnesiac Sam"

Name: ???
Race: Elf

Karma
[ Spoiler ]


Description:
[ Spoiler ]


Attributes:
[ Spoiler ]


Qualities:
[ Spoiler ]


Skills:
[ Spoiler ]


Contacts:
[ Spoiler ]


Gear
[ Spoiler ]
Lamhslea
Chaske Mato, Sioux Nomad

DESCRIPTION
[ Spoiler ]


BACKGROUND
[ Spoiler ]


SHEET
[ Spoiler ]
Abschalten
Alright. I am going to have the IC Thread up tonight! I will post an introduction narrative and a general blurb about the city. I will also establish the DATE, DAY, and TIME.

What you guys will do after that is figure out what your characters are doing at that date and time and make your first post. I know it's standard procedure for the GM to set you up at the start, but I want this to be an abrupt start. It doesn't matter what your character is doing: having their way with a muñeca, taking a dump, running from gang members, trying to sleep, drinking, watching a pitfight, taking part in a pitfight, trying to follow up a lead, etc.. You make the first post and describe what your character is doing, and *THEN* I will take it from there. Just start me off with an introduction, maybe a brief leadup, and we'll get going. You all start as strangers, but if you want to tie them together in the same scenes and have them bump into each other, that's fine by me.

For those of you living in the shittier side of town (and I think that's ALL of you), I want you to keep your residences/apartments/squats in the neighborhoods of La Rinconada or El Zamural (which are ghettos known for their shantytowns and 25 story apartment deathtraps), or the dirty red light districts of Nueva Caracas or Palmar de Caridad. Nobody should be living in the ritzy, elite parts of town. FYI: Caracas has 23 million people in a very small space and 60% of the population live below the poverty level. Despair and hopelessness are par for the course. smile.gif

Also: anyone who has not yet had a charsheet approved will need to wait until that is done to start posting. Once I have done that, THEN you can make your first post and I'll weave you into the story.

We're on, people! Start putting your discussions here. The Recruitment Thread is hereby retired!

Edit: The only exception will be Combat Mage's "Amnesiac Sam" character. I will make the first post for you, since you are entering the game in unusual circumstances. smile.gif
Rastus
Alright, bring it on!

Probably a good thing everyone lives in the shitty part of town. Half of us are suspicious-looking enough to be shot on sight by the Caracas Police Force. Well armed as the gangers may be, the CPF equip their beat cops as well as Seattle equips it's SWAT teams.
Abschalten
IC Thread Up!

Get to it, soldiers!
Abschalten
@CombatMage: the Chacao District (page 135, Ghost Cartels) is actually a more city-like, industrialized part of town, similar to what you might expect in downtown Seattle. My bluster aside, not ALL of Caracas is a festering pile of shit, just about 70% of it. wink.gif I couldn't place you in the crap parts of town and still have the police there, since they focus mostly on containment, that is, keeping the bad stuff in and away from the wealthier and more elite folks.

So you've come to in a sorta bad position, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I ended the blurb abruptly after the initial set-up so you could jump right in.

Also, you have 8P damage and are bleeding. You're welcome. smile.gif
Mister Juan
Quick question: how ridiculously obvious are people concerning their armor / weaponry in the shaddy part of town?
I just don't want Dexter to go out to get a pack of beer and come face to face with gangers armed with SPAS-22. Well, actually, on second thought, that might be very interesting....
Abschalten
How obvious? Well there is a minimal police/security presense, but it's mostly on the fringes of those neighborhoods. Some gang members run around with impugnity, flashing weapons freely. And accordingly many people have at least some armor. I mean just because a bullet wasn't meant for you, doesn't mean it won't kill you, you know?

Granted it might raise some eyebrows if you walk into a bar carrying a machine gun with a rocket launcher on your back and grenades hanging off a bandolier. But in the real crap parts of town? Unless you have something over the top it probably won't merit much notice. People might run away from you or get scared, but then they do that whenever they see ANYBODY obviously armed. Some people might even show their weapons freely as a deterrent to other criminals, saying "Yeah, I'll bite back."
Lamhslea
Part of revising my charsheet to deal with the different qualities has resulted in me using less BP for gear so I'm going over all of that again. One thing I've stumbled upon in Arsenal is the Special Machinery/Storage vehicle mod. I'd like to add some sort of cargo storage to Chaske's motorcycle but the cost and slots used are 'variable'. What would be some good numbers to plug in here? I'm just looking for a hard, lockable case or two that can store a set of armor and a couple of machine pistol sized weapons.
Abschalten
I wouldn't worry about cost or capacity. *Handwave* You have some lockable containers.

We really need a *handwave* icon on here.
Combat Mage
QUOTE (Abschalten @ Jul 8 2010, 03:21 AM) *
Also, you have 8P damage and are bleeding. You're welcome. smile.gif


Thanks grinbig.gif

This is awesome, I'm really excited the game has started. I just hope I can keep up with the high writing standards everbody is putting up, considering that english is not my native language.
Lamhslea
I decided to go with an addiction to depressants since Chaske spends most of his time trying to forget his past. Bliss sounds like a wonderful drug for the task, but it's not listed in the tables. Does anyone have an idea as to what it costs, per dose?
DrZaius
QUOTE (Lamhslea @ Jul 8 2010, 10:44 AM) *
I decided to go with an addiction to depressants since Chaske spends most of his time trying to forget his past. Bliss sounds like a wonderful drug for the task, but it's not listed in the tables. Does anyone have an idea as to what it costs, per dose?


That's really odd; I wonder why they don't have it listed (just checked my book). I'd say since Novacoke and Cram are 10 nuyen.gif a piece, somewhere around there? The fact that it gives High Pain Tolerance 3 makes it slightly trickier, so I'd wait for Abschalten before you go markin' off the 'yen.
Lamhslea
The closest thing I can find is NoPaint, which also gives High Pain Tolerance III and costs 15¥ a pop.
Abschalten
10 nuyen.gif a pop sounds reasonable. Strange that it's not listed in the tables. But I'm willing to go with that price until/unless I find another price somewhere else.

But I mean you're in Caracas, which is Cartel Central. The street prices for these things are probably alot less than, say, in Seattle, simply because this is such a hub for drug trafficking.

Lahmslea: Go ahead and make the edits to your sheet, and I'll look over 'em. When I approve you, you can make your first post.
Doc Chase
I want to say check Arsenal - I believe it's there.


Ahahahahaha! My Tangenitally Useful Trivia skill has increased to 351.
Combat Mage
Deleted due to being obsolete. wink.gif
Abschalten
A-ha! Hidden away on page 188 of Arsenal is the street price for Bliss, at 15 nuyen.gif . We were pretty close.
Abschalten
Cool, so the game's rolling. I very much like what I've read from you guys so far. At this point nobody should feel inadequate about their writing skills; I've been pleased and impressed. Keep doing what you guys are doing and I'll be a happy, unbored GM.

I did want to ask and see if there was a general call or a need for any house rules. I tend to keep pretty close to the game mechanics, mostly for simplicity and fairness reasons. I do deviate at times when there is a need to. But sometimes I need things pointed out to me, so I can evaluate them. For example, I put #3 up on the house rules because Rastus pointed out to me (again) how STUPID the new, revised scatter rules were. I thought the original ones in SR4 were better than the current batch so I wanted to go back to those.

So does anybody have anything they want me to look at? Or any recommendations? I can't say I'll accept it but I will certainly take a peak.
Doc Chase
So far I'm a fan of the house rules - They all make sense. I'll have to pick up a refresher on grenade scatter since I don't use them often. nyahnyah.gif
Martin_DeVries_Institute
Yeah, so far the posted house rules make a lot of sense and look like they'll work well. I've no additional suggestions just yet... it's been too long since I actively played SR to be able to make any comments on the rules.
Lamhslea
I think I have my character sheet squared away. I might be a bit iffy on the gear section, since I did a lot of tweaking there.

btw, Zaius. I was browsing character sheets when I noticed you have 12 BP in gear, but list 55k nuyen. 12 BP gives you 60k.
Abschalten
Looks good, Lahmslea, except for one thing: You have too many complex forms. I believe the number is limited to your Logic x 2 in chargen. You have 12 CFs but a 5 Logic, meaning you need to drop two of them. You can take a couple of those CFs with 1s in them and just roll them over into something else.
Lamhslea
Damn, forgot about that. Also, his Logic is 3. I shaved it down to 6 CF's and ended up with 2 extra BP's, I threw that into Hacking Specialization (Exploit).
Abschalten
Alright, Lamhslea, I do believe you are now cleared for take-off.
Rystefn
Yeah, the scatter rules are total ass. Rockets are worse than grenades, too. Any improvement to that system is a step in the right direction. A house rule we used in my tabletop game was that successes on the reaction roll to avoid a grenade moved the dodger not the grenade. You attack roll determines where the thing lands, and everyone in the radius gets to try to get away from it... or dive on it, if they're the sort to do that.
Abschalten
The scatter rules were BETTER, though by no means perfect, in the original SR4 BBB. They were workable. In the SR4A BBB you're just as likely to kill yourself as you are an enemy with a grenade, regardless of your ability. That's not right at all.
Rastus
I find that this is a good representation of what the new scatter rules achieve.(if the link doesn't work, copy and paste it and then put it in your address bar. That should work.)

Note: Not shown, rockets and launched grenades flying right back at their user. Somehow.
Doc Chase
QUOTE (Rastus @ Jul 8 2010, 11:15 PM) *
I find that this is a good representation of what the new scatter rules achieve.(if the link doesn't work, copy and paste it and then put it in your address bar. That should work.)

Note: Not shown, rockets and launched grenades flying right back at their user. Somehow.


I agree, a 404 makes perfect sense. wink.gif
Rastus
QUOTE (Doc Chase @ Jul 8 2010, 07:14 PM) *
I agree, a 404 makes perfect sense. wink.gif


Yeah yeah, smarm it up. The link will work if you simply right click it, copy shortcut, then paste it in your address bar like I already said to do.
Abschalten
Just FYI, I'll be posting the follow-ups to scenes tonight. If you haven't already submitted your first post, get that in soon as you can. I don't want to leave people hanging too badly. smile.gif If you don't have them in tonight you can just get them in at any point after that and I'll start to weave you in, but the time will be advanced by like two or three minutes (not a big deal, really.)

Also: I'll probably ask most of you to give me some rolls. I'll make the request in the posts on what I'd like for you to roll.
Mister Juan
Sorry it took me some time to get a post up. I wasn't quite sure how I wanted to start.
Believe it or not, I got the idea while picking apples at the grocery store....
Abschalten
Well fuck me, Mister Juan. I got disoriented and nauseous reading your post... in a GOOD way! Very noir, there. smokin.gif
Mister Juan
Much obliged wink.gif
Rastus
Hey Juan, Pope wouldn't happen to know a bespectacled middle aged man who tends to go psycho if he doesn't get his pills, does he?
Mister Juan
QUOTE (Rastus @ Jul 8 2010, 09:17 PM) *
Hey Juan, Pope wouldn't happen to know a bespectacled middle aged man who tends to go psycho if he doesn't get his pills, does he?


I'll have to shamefully admit I have no idea who you're talking about wink.gif
Rastus
QUOTE (Mister Juan @ Jul 8 2010, 09:22 PM) *
I'll have to shamefully admit I have no idea who you're talking about wink.gif


Don't worry about it, doubt anybody remembers Kane & Lynch aside from the Gamespot controversy. Besides, with Popes arsenal I might as well think of him as Frank Castle.
Mister Juan
QUOTE (Rastus @ Jul 8 2010, 10:26 PM) *
Don't worry about it, doubt anybody remembers Kane & Lynch aside from the Gamespot controversy. Besides, with Popes arsenal I might as well think of him as Frank Castle.


Kane & Lynch. Holy shit. That was really far in the back of my brain wink.gif
Rystefn
QUOTE (Abschalten @ Jul 8 2010, 09:28 PM) *
The scatter rules were BETTER, though by no means perfect, in the original SR4 BBB. They were workable. In the SR4A BBB you're just as likely to kill yourself as you are an enemy with a grenade, regardless of your ability. That's not right at all.


Yeah, although very little compares to the staggering 14 net hits required to actually hit anything with a rocket on average. I've gotten better accuracy out of blindfolding someone, spinning them around five times, and handing them a lit Roman candle (yeah, we did a lot of stupid things as teenagers).
Abschalten
Panorama of Caracas

This was taken from in the Cerro El Ávila neighborhood, which is the rich, nice part of the city where the wealthiest of the elite live and look down on the poor masses in our game. Take note of the city. It's even bigger and more congested in 2071. Also, 3 million people lived there in 2008, and 23 million people live in that same space now.
Lamhslea
Finally posted! By the way, the tablet Chaske is attempting to swallow is Bliss. Hopefully I didn't take too many liberties with getting him out of traffic and then buzzing down an alley, I just wanted to get him into the story!

Also, I've still got 4kishnuyen in chargen, mind if I throw some of that into more drugs and some minor gear I missed while rushing to finish up my charsheet?
Abschalten
That's fine by me.

Also, what's that drumming represent? I probably should have picked up on it but it's late and I'm a little sleepy. smile.gif

(But I'm still writing follow-ups tonight!)
Rastus
QUOTE
Quickly, the Amerind turned off the Pilot program before it could leave the Static Zone it had wandered into. The motorcycle quickly came to a graceful stop and Chaske began to take deeper and longer breaths.


Missed two words. Good job, nice work. nyahnyah.gif
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