Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version: Dark Days in Denver [OOC]
Dumpshock Forums > Discussion > Welcome to the Shadows
Pages: 1, 2
Panjandrum
For my approved players, please begin by posting a brief character sketch as you sit at a bar in the Hub district of Denver. The Hub is adjacent to the UCAS and Sioux sectors, but is accessible from at least one location by all four sectors, and serves as the downtown meeting place for many large corporations, and a nice neutral territory for those that live and work in the Front Range Free Zone.

Please indicate in your post which sector you live in - it's fine if everyone decides to be from the UCAS, but feel free to branch out if appropriate.

Once some of the character sketches are in, you can start building some history together. Feel free to improvise, as the world is laid out for us, but the details are sketchy. Invent people, businesses, and the like. You've been a team for a short time, with the core of you at least together for three missions already. Talk about those missions some, if you like, and feel free to give me interesting plot hooks sprinkled in the result.

The players for the game thus far are:

Thanee
Seth
BlackHat
Aria
Gobogen
Red-ROM

This ought to give us a chance to have a pretty solid little team, even where your intended characters overlap.

If you find that you're overlapping too much with someone, and want to tweak your concept, that's fine.

And this is of course the place to post your character sheet for us all to see as well.

So, get to it!

Oh, and a rule that some of you have heard, and others may not have - 10 free BP in contacts over and above the 400 starting. Keep the contact and loyalty ratings reasonable - I don't want you all to have a L6/C6 contact or two as it tends to skew the legwork. smile.gif
Thanee
Felice

Character Sheet
[ Spoiler ]


Bye
Thanee
Aria
Masque - work in progress

- Still need to resolve contacts & knowledge skills
- Any comments welcome (slightly concerned that I'm trying to do too much and not really succeeding at one thing nyahnyah.gif)
- Background needs finishing off...

[ Spoiler ]



BlackHat
"Vice" - Final (?) Draft

Description:
[ Spoiler ]


Background:
[ Spoiler ]


Character Sheet:
[ Spoiler ]

gobogen
Preacher will also join this fine crew.. his sheet is a work in progress

[ Spoiler ]


Edited out
[ Spoiler ]
Seth
Hi guys. Looking forward to playing with you.

Angel is nearly ready. I haven't played a technomancer before so any help greatly appreciated. Angel is physically pretty crippled, so I plan on spending most of my time not with you, or in my evo orderly.

Character
Race Human child, female age 12
[ Spoiler ]

Backstory
[ Spoiler ]

What Angel thinks of you others smile.gif
[ Spoiler ]


I currently live in the UCAS area

If you don't mind, the way I met the rest of you is that I hired some or all of you to bust me out of a black research facility. This was 2 years ago, when I was 10. I am an adequate hacker, so long as I don't have to get involved in the fighting (I am about as good as fighting as you would expect a 12 year old to be).

I can run your tacnet (so if you can all have lots of sensors that would be good), and am quite happy for you to slave your commlink to me or not as you choose.

In the bar
[ Spoiler ]
Red-ROM
Runt
[ Spoiler ]

Runt is living in the UCAS sector.
Aria
Hmmm...3 mages, 2 illusion based, should be interesting smile.gif
BlackHat
copy/pasted edits from above, in case people didn't catch them.

QUOTE (blackhat)
- @Preacher: I don't mind us both having Mind Probe, but it's very central to what Vice does (learning what his clients want, and with enough hits even uncovering subconscious desired they don't know, themselves). Since it features in your backstory, I'd say keep it. It might be a cool tool for him to prove (to himself, if no one else) that just about everyone is evil or at least sinful. (Something both of these mages can agree on). I'm also surprised that you didn't take some sort of prayer geas (either as a ritual that needs to be done every 24 hours, or as a gesture that must be done when spellcasting, or both). It seems to fit the concept well, if you're interested. [EDIT: Ahh, I guess if he believes he's getting magic from Satan, it wouldn't make sense if his magic went down if he didn't pray to god... and he probably wouldn't WANT to pray to Satan (if avoidable). In that case, never-mind the suggestion.]

- @ Wasp/Angel: From my (limited) experience with a TM, you might want at least one rank in electronic warfare. Whether you need to scan for a hidden node before cracking in, or trying to break some cheap encryption... as a TM you can thread up the CF, but without the EW skill, you can't even roll (since you can't default).

- Also, so far, 4/4 PCs are human?!? Glad to see it, but this is a Shadowrun first for me.
BlackHat
QUOTE (Aria @ Feb 14 2011, 06:23 PM) *
Hmmm...3 mages, 2 illusion based, should be interesting smile.gif

I assume Masque is the other illusionist? Yes, should be interesting. Also, Vice is not a traditional illusionist, so I'm sure we'll be sufficiently different.
BlackHat
QUOTE (Aria @ Feb 14 2011, 06:23 PM) *
Hmmm...3 mages, 2 illusion based, should be interesting smile.gif

Also, this way, astral travel/combat/etc might not be a sub-system that gets glossed over. When we do astral recon, half the team could come along. wink.gif
Red-ROM
Runt is a drifter at present, living out of a duffle bag. looking for money, connections, and answers to some personal questions. I could see him involved with springing the Technomancer. He's a decent hacker. Sort of a generalist, but he fits with Felice's talents like a puzzle piece. Similar backgrounds. Runt leaning to the build/repair side, and Felice leaning to the user end. Also, she has the people skills I lack smile.gif
gobogen
Well this should be a fun team, very skilled, overall very powerful, slightly redundant, a bit overspecialized, and damn low in tanking capability. This last point will likely affect our typical approach preferring stealth (2 illusionists.. huh!?) and subtlety (3 mages, 2 hackers, 1 face!). Can't wait to get this thing started smile.gif

By the way, Preacher would totally have done the extraction job for your character two years before, Seth. I think this is a good way to start the relationship between (all?) our characters. We should get started on run ideas for our past deeds together. When everyone is posted, I'll also put up a few likely first reactions of my character for each of the others, to get things started so that we get starting getting the feeling of an established team.
Seth
I like unbalanced teams in most games. They tend to make it easy for the GM to give you a challenging time, and avoid that feeling of invulnerability that can spoil a game. I don't know how they work out in shadowrun, but I suspect we are about to find out.

Thanks for the advice on electronic warface, I have edited my character to have it.

Thanks also for the 10 pts on contacts.

I have now bought the cheapest pickup truck I could find. I think it will help if we have a way to move around other than Kombat Kabs smile.gif I'll trick it out in game, if we get an opportunity.
Seth
I'd like to suggest a few previous missions as per Panjandrum's request:

Taking an urgent parcel from Mr Johnson through a couple of checkpoints. We had to go through the ghoul tunnels to get there. The parcel was 1mx1mx1m, magically warded and surrounded in lead. We were lucky and didn't meet any ghouls. We think Mr Johnson might have been employed by a subsidiary of aztech.

Rescuing Mr Johnsons daughter from a Humanis Policlub breeding centre (think the moonies). Diversions lots of thermal smoke. Mr Vice had a lot of fun with his unmentionable spells, and got a bit carried away. I'm not sure how preacher reacted. This was not the quietest job in the world.

Industrial espionage: get the recipe of the new Aztech sushi-burger from their fast food research facility. We were slick, no one noticed. The recipe was posted on many blogs simulataneously which caused aztech to loose 2% of its share price for a week.

Demolish a warehouse at 12:01am, on April 29th. The client didn't care if there was collateral damage...Angel and preacher did, I don't know about you others. (Angel is ok at demolitions - 8die). Again we were pretty good, no one got hurt.


Red-ROM
@ Seth: I didn't see the demolitions skill on your sheet. other skills not listed you might want, unarmed combat and pistols

Runt's Matrix persona is the black spy from Spy vs. Spy. and all his programs are cartoony like that. old fashion bombs and giant magnifying glass. that kind of thing
Aria
I've updated my post to put Masque up, she still needs work and I've tried to tweak one or two things to avoid massive redundancy.

She probably only joined the group fairly recently (a previous version of her is about to kick Seth's arse in my Emerging Conflict game ork.gif ). Perhaps she took over for Vice when he wasn't available and they all worked well enough together for you to ask her back?!?

Comments needed! smile.gif
BlackHat
QUOTE (Aria @ Feb 15 2011, 07:52 AM) *
Comments needed! smile.gif


Love that someone took an honest-to-god addiction - and to eX no less. Vice will be happy to hook you up, if you happen to run low. wink.gif

I also noticed you have some Betel, but no addiction to it. Since the first time you take it you become addicted, if you're planning to dip into it, yourself, you might as well take a mild addiction off the bat.
Aria
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Feb 15 2011, 02:46 PM) *
Love that someone took an honest-to-god addiction - and to eX no less. Vice will be happy to hook you up, if you happen to run low. wink.gif

I also noticed you have some Betel, but no addiction to it. Since the first time you take it you become addicted, if you're planning to dip into it, yourself, you might as well take a mild addiction off the bat.


Given it's an auto additiction (with no real drawbacks) I figured it wasn't really worth BPs, but yes, she'll have an addiction to that too smile.gif
BlackHat
QUOTE (Aria @ Feb 15 2011, 08:49 AM) *
Given it's an auto additiction (with no real drawbacks) I figured it wasn't really worth BPs, but yes, she'll have an addiction to that too smile.gif

It's probably not worth any BP, so good call. wink.gif
Saint Sithney
QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Feb 14 2011, 05:48 PM) *
Runt is a drifter at present, living out of a duffle bag. looking for money, connections, and answers to some personal questions. I could see him involved with springing the Technomancer. He's a decent hacker. Sort of a generalist, but he fits with Felice's talents like a puzzle piece. Similar backgrounds. Runt leaning to the build/repair side, and Felice leaning to the user end. Also, she has the people skills I lack smile.gif


You should switch your Chemistry skill form active to knowledge, really. The optional active version is for "If the use and abuse of chemicals is going to play a large role in your campaign, you may want to consider transforming Chemistry from a Knowledge skill to an Active Skill (part of the Technical skills category)" which, to me says "if you're a barrens gang cooking up bathtub crank..."


QUOTE (BlackHat @ Feb 15 2011, 06:07 AM) *
It's probably not worth any BP, so good call. wink.gif


It is if you play it as it's meant to be - a gateway drug to harder stimulants. biggrin.gif
Seth
QUOTE
I didn't see the demolitions skill on your sheet

Thats what tutor sprites are for smile.gif I have 8 die on demolitions and almost any logic skills

QUOTE
Unarmed and pistols

I quite like the challenge of a character without. I am not sure if its viable, but I am going to try. I think that machine sprites can be good enough to save my ass, but we'll have to see.

Thanks for the feedback.


BlackHat
@Seth: Curious if Mr. Chips/Sleaze/Gremlin are bound sprites, or if you plan to just call up sprites that go by those names as needed.

BlackHat
QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Feb 14 2011, 05:35 PM) *
2 doses Overdrive
10 doses cram
10 sticks Betel gum


Just noticed Runt is carrying drugs too. biggrin.gif Pleased to see it.
Thanee
JUNKIES!! grinbig.gif

Bye
Thanee
BlackHat
Gum junkies. wobble.gif
BlackHat
Vice's impressions:

Let me know if these seem accurate, or if you intended for your character to come off differently. I don't mean to put words or actions into anyone's mouths, but I tried to come up with some anecdotes about how these characters might interact.
[ Spoiler ]


Will make the finishing touches on the character sheet tomorrow.
Red-ROM
so let's see.

Angel- is a strange one, so young, but the things she does on the Matrix are, in ways,magical. Sometimes this is extremely annoying. and Runt is waiting to get her back somehow, maybe when she's older. They met after He and some others were hired to break her out of some corpoate research facility. His first real run in Denver.

Felice- Is someone Runt gets along with really well. It helps that she's easy on the eyes (though still a little tall for him) and a pretty smooth talker as well, but really it's her weapons background that makes him feel more comfortable. Sometimes he can talk shop with her like he was back home in Wolfsburg. They actually hit the same watering hole, and both know "Twirl", the Barkeeper

Masque- Runt hasn't known as long, and he understands her even less. He does have a fondness of her grenade launcher with the pilot system. They have managed to relate a little on their corporate background and surviving attacks on those corps

Vice-seems like a fun guy. sometimes a little too fun. he's like that one type of liquor you really like, but stay away from because you get too fucked up on it. Runt is a very practical guy. He uses drugs sometimes, but mostly to try and get an edge, but he knows the downsides, and tries to avoid leaning on them too often. This gets harder to do around Vice. Luckily, Runt is pretty much broke most of the time, so there's only so much recreation he can get into.

Preacher- Is down right scary most of the time. He met him when busting Angel out of the labs. Runt has never been a religeous guy, and the ranting that Preacher can do is a littel unnerving. Now, he has been a force to be reckoned with on runs. And Runt can appreciate that, but he mostly tries to avoid being alone with the guy. He does come in handy when Vice gets a little too "fun". It's good to keep those guys in balance.


hmm. I think It's a good Idea to make the "Angel break out" the first missoin together as a team. Maybe with one or two exceptions? I can change the above. Just trying to get familiar with everyone.

Runt is task oriented and very matter of fact. He's not tactfull or very in touch with social subtlties. He does like loud music and explosions. He holds a grudge forever, but is very presice about revenge, eye for an eye kind of thing. He doesn't talk about feelings, but he is completely focused on finding his mother and getting revenge for his family. When he feels like crying, something will be blown up. He is currantly sleeping in whatever spot he can bunker down for the night, spending all his money on ammo and explosives, and on whatever leads he can persue to find his mom. He smells like the street and whatever oil he found to put up his two mohawks today.
BlackHat
QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Feb 15 2011, 09:39 PM) *
[Vice]'s like that one type of liquor you really like, but stay away from because you get too fucked up on it.


I love that analogy.
BlackHat
QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Feb 15 2011, 09:39 PM) *
I think It's a good Idea to make the "Angel break out" the first missoin together as a team. Maybe with one or two exceptions?

That seems good. 2 years working together already seems like a long time for starting runners, so we probably didn't do many missions before that.

QUOTE (Red-ROM @ Feb 15 2011, 09:39 PM) *
...but he is completely focused on finding his mother and getting revenge for his family

Is this something he would have let the rest of the team in on, or a personal goal?
Seth
QUOTE
Sometimes this is extremely annoying. and Runt is waiting to get her back somehow, maybe when she's older

Angel thinks that Runt is nice, one of the few people that you can actually play with. Gremlin likes to tease Runt, not Angel.

QUOTE
Junkies

Angle thinks that she's hanging out with a crowd that will set her a good example of how to be good. Mr Chips doesn't agree, but he's not always right.
Thanee
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Feb 16 2011, 02:58 AM) *
Felice - ...but that doesn't usually stop him from making the occasional shameless sexual advance.


She's quite used to it, I guess. wink.gif

QUOTE
(Also, if her "escort" services are the adult kind, as opposed to the high-class-date kind, Vice would be interested to know - but I'm not sure if Felice's dayjob is even public knowledge)


I wouldn't think that it is public knowledge. Oh, and I was more thinking of the "classy" kind (though I am aware that nowadays it is more of an excuse for the other kind), basically a mix of subtle protection and eye candy. wink.gif

Bye
Thanee

P.S. Still need to finish my character sheet, though it's mostly some equipment missing now. smile.gif
Red-ROM
@ Seth: yea, that might have come out wrong. He wants to get her back in the same way, but he's not sure she's old enough to understand that she's irritating him or to appreciate a prank in return.Kids can usually dish it out, but they can't take it. I would imagine that he sees the sprite as some kind of program she's running, or would at least know its related with her in some way.

As for Runt's personal mission. He would have waited a while to tell anyone. He doesn't trust runners because he knows that runners were responsible in part for his parents misfortune. So he doesn't want to tip his hand if he ends up working with them. HE would first have kept it to himself and probed everyone for info. Have they been to Germany. Do they know "Sky Runner". After a few runs he would loosen up and probably share his story. He needs all the help he can get.
BlackHat
Didn't see these edits until today for some reason:

QUOTE (gobogen @ Feb 13 2011, 05:34 PM) *
-- well you talked me into putting Mind Probe back smile.gif I'm still not sure about my spell selection, some spells are given, like Fireball, Ignite, Heal, but many seem a bit off like Increase Reflexes and Improved Invis

Glad you held onto it. Improved Invis is covered by Masque if you're interested in freeing it up. Increased Reflexes is always handy for a combat mage, even if it doesn't make a lot of thematical sense. I didn't pick it up with Vice, but it is an all around good spell for a mage who can't afford to trade half his magic rating for some extra IP.

QUOTE
-- just thought about it.. if your character doesn't mind being called a sex-crazed, disgusting sinner and pretty much agrees, we might have an easier time in our interactions; though you're still a pacifist and I'm still a damn violent maniac for a self-righteous priest, so that's still an issue

Its not that Vice doesn't mind being insulted (although he generally owns up to his debauchery), but he's willing to overlook it. The fact that Preacher thinks he is also a sinner helps take the edge off of any slander he throws around. As far as the pacifist thing, I made sure to take the 5-point version, so its a personal set of ethics, rather than something he's going to impose on anyone else. If Preacher goes all fire-and-brimstone on someone, or Runt blows up a building with demolitions, Vice won't be happy about it, but he doesn't expect them to value life as much as he does, either. Particularly Preacher, because he's crazy, and thinks he's actually doing a good deed. Not sure what version of pacifist Angel has, though - if its the 10-pointer, she might have a problem with it.
Thanee
QUOTE (BlackHat @ Feb 16 2011, 05:54 PM) *
...but he doesn't expect them to value life as much as he does...


Says the drug dealer. biggrin.gif

Bye
Thanee
Thanee
Equipment is finally done and so my character sheet is nearly finished (mostly needs some descriptions for the contacts and maybe expand the background a bit after I realized, that she must be in Denver for a few years already). smile.gif

Felice lives in the UCAS sector.

Bye
Thanee
gobogen
My sheet is still not over yet, even though all BPs are accounted for. I need to touch up on his gear and spells, mostly.

@BlackHat: What you said regarding Vice and Preacher makes sense to me.

Here are Preacher's impressions of everyone, but first I just want to stress that Preacher tones his preaching down at least a little bit with fellow runners or clients or whatever -- well except about gays, perhaps, he hates homosexuality.

[ Spoiler ]
BlackHat
QUOTE (Thanee @ Feb 16 2011, 12:10 PM) *
Says the drug dealer. biggrin.gif


Not the drugs that will KILL you...

EDIT: Just the ones that make that life that much more fun to live.
BlackHat
Final (?) version of Vice edited into first post.

I ended up using the spare 6 points for more (better) contacts, and even pulled 5 more points from spirit services into contacts. After re-reading the descriptions for the various levels of loyalty and connection I think these numbers fit better for the concepts i had.

Also, I didn't want to pump too many points into spirits since if they die on their first service, it doesn't matter how many tasks they owe you.
Red-ROM
ok, added 10 points in contacts,

@Panjandrum: Saint brought up a good point, Is Chemestry going to be an active skill in this game? or Just a knowlege skill? I currently have 3 in both
Red-ROM
here's the short lived game where Runt debuted:

Runt in Chicago
Aria
Sorry haven't posted, couldn't get on DS today...try to get something up tomorrow

A
Red-ROM
Body Lockers. The name says it all. But being a dwarf has some advantages when it comes to Coffin Motels. This particular one was in a great location. Just inside the Aurora Warrens, it still had power and water. Plus, there was a club across the street with great Matrix connectivity.Runt would probably stay here a while, but seeing how he had hacked the meter on the room, and the bus station next door is crawling with ZDF half the time, This life of luxury looks to be limited.
It was just about time to meet the gang. They had split up and laid low for two days. The news feeds had been buzzing about the explosion and the collapsed building pretty hard, but it was slowly fading from the headlines. The job had gone off without a hitch really. Angel turned out to be pretty good with some C-12. That kid is full of surprises.
Now If only she could stop treating me like I'm a cartoon character from a Christmas trid. Ten o'clock at club "Greed". Vice's choice. I guess he's in with the owner or something. He said the place has "The right kind of security". I imagine that means the private, take care of the paying customers without asking questions, type. I know he chose it to make Preacher squirm. Preacher holds it togeter under pressure though. I don't think he'll give Vice the satisfaction.
Seth
QUOTE
@Seth: Curious if Mr. Chips/Sleaze/Gremlin are bound sprites, or if you plan to just call up sprites that go by those names as needed.

Mostly Angel is not really functioning on all barrels. In her world view the sprites are there all the time, and by concentrating she can make them more solid. Sometimes they are there in more than one body. I'm mostly doing it this way for fun. Its a lot nicer talking about Mr Chips than a tutor sprite.

Its much easier as a technomancer to register sprites than a mage summoning a sprite: no expensive material components, so soon after the game starts I will have loads of services from around force 3 or 4 sprites, and at that point they will be around most of the time. Angel doesn't see this as "services" though. Angel has to think hard to keep Mr Chips solid, and the more Mr chips does, the more Angel has to think hard.
Aria
Where's the best place (sourcebook) to look up info on Denver?...Masque is new in town but she would take the trouble to do some basic background research first...

A
Red-ROM
I have Shadows of North America (sr3) and sixth world Almanac(sr4)
Any other good ones? Like, where do you get the story about Ghostwalker kicking out Aztlan?
gobogen
All I have is Shadows of North America. I need to refresh my memory as well.
Thanee
The Denver box, obviously. Though the info in there is probably a bit dated. wink.gif

This could be helpful: http://denver.wikidot.com/

Bye
Thanee
Red-ROM
I've been kind of just posting random blurbs on here. I went with the demo mission Seth recommended as sort of our most recent mission together. Anyway, in re-reading the original post, I noticed that we're supposed to be posting a scene about sitting in a bar in the Hub. Should we be sitting at the same bar? at a particular time? If not, if this is a character sketch, do we have to be at a bar? I can probably ramble about Runt's comings and goings all day, I just didn't want to get off track.
gobogen
I think we need some GM supervision right now regarding what is left for us to do before we're good to start.

That is, if we still have a GM? I just checked pan's account and I found this:
Joined: 4-February 11
Last Seen: 13th February 2011 - 05:37 PM

...
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here.
Dumpshock Forums © 2001-2012