Flatline looks pretty good for the most part, Cardboard. There seems to be something missing from him, but I can't seem to put my finger on it. If it hits me in the near future, I'll be sure to let you know.

Since we're sharing characters, here's a little bit about Nikolai "Dragos" Rozhenko, an aerial rigger and communications/electronic warfare whiz. I'm still waiting for some correspondence between Ronin and myself before I can really get to work on him, but I've put up some information that I think the rest of the team can be safe knowing for now. Let me know what you think and if you have any ideas on how to improve him a bit.

Hey guys, sorry to keep you waiting...seems like you guys are as anxious about this game as I am. I don't think I'm going to have a lot of time to post for most of rest of the weekend, but I'll do my best to finish up reviewing characters.

I've filled 7 of the 8 slots so far, and I'm really agonizing over the last one.

So far, here's who's in:
Grey (Team Leader)
Shadow (Sniper/Weapons Expert)
Coardboard Armor (Decker)
Clockwork Lime (EW+Commo)
Gobogen (Engineer/Demo)
Digital Heroin (Stealth/Assassin Adept)
Callidus (Shaman/Medical Expert)

The four I'm left trying to decide over are:
Panzergeist (Sorcerer/Hermtic/Shaman?)
BGMFH (Combat Rigger)
Toturi (SBS Pointman/PhysAd)
Beast of Revolutions (ex jap-imperial marine PhysAd/Combat expert)

All of these guys have really good background stories, and any one of them would be a good addition to the team, although there would be a good be of overlap with some of the existing characters.

Before I decide on anything, I'd like to get some feedback from those who are alreay in. Let me know what you guys think the team needs and why.

And those of you in line for the last slot, let us know what makes your character speical.

Again, if I could put you all in, I'd do it in a heartbeat, but my limit is 8 and I'm sticking to it.


Clockwork Lime
Hmmm, I don't think I've gotten a recent e-mail from you. Resend whatever you have, or you can PM it to me. I think the last thing I got from you was your character before I added on the extra BP.

My money is on the rigger. Right now I don't think we have a full rigger capable character?

From bitter experience I have learned how useful one can be. So BGMFH has my vote.

My character can build, repair, and handle just about anything in the air with more than a hint of grace, but a naval- and ground-based combat rigger would fill in the holes mine has as a rigger. Then again, you can never have enough magical support, either. Considering our only active magician is a medic, a combat-oriented hermetic would be a welcome addition to the team in my opinion.

Both Dragos and Flatline look good to me *8-> and it looks like we've got our linguist *8->

As for the 8th character I have to say either the rigger or the mage.... sorry physad peeps *8-< Riggers can be faaaaar too useful as I'm finding out with a couple I'm playing and a second mage would be really useful for extra spell defence and spell slinging/illusions/etc. I can't hold *that* many spells up at a time.... well okay a fair few *8-> Plus my only combat spells are stunbolt and stunball so I'll have to go to the grenade launcher for AV stuff and that's not very quiet *8-<

Fine. I don't mind not playing. But I don't recall the last time a tank featured in a spec ops campaign other than fodder (Rambo doesn't count).

What about Hot Shots Part Deux?

BTW, as to the Neurosis bit, Overlord is just your standard overachieving military brat, a breeder trying to hang with the Trogs....

He is not neurotic, not at all! Why would anyone think that ordering 18-20 faithful, death-dealing, lead-spewing slaves arpund 24hrs a day, 7 days a week would cause a God Complex? Geeze.

I can be a mage or a shaman, whatever the group needs.

My character will make a great scout, if the team still needs one of those. Not as good as he could have been with Panzer's character to make him invisible, but stealth 6 and traceless walk would still make him pretty damn good.

For my money I'd say go with one of the Adepts, true it would be doubling up, but we need more combat to the team. We have magic, we have tech, we need people who can handle themselves and cover the others.

Maybe it's a personal preference, but I would go for more magic. If you look back at the first page of thread, you see which roles needed to be filled in, and our shaman is a medical expert, not completely a magical expert. I think a hermetic mage would do good things to the group (why hermetic? for variety!)

The only way to solve this is to throw all four of them into a pit and resolve it with a knife-fight amongst them. Four (wo)men in, one (wo)man out.

Or we can leave it to a toss of the die by Ronin. Total, equal chance.

Do we want a rigger? Since Ronin said we all needed parachuting, I assumed this would be an all-infantry squad. I suppose a rigger could get a vehicle that can be airdropped, or maybe a helicopter, depending on how far behind enemy lines we are, but I was thinking more along the lines of living off the land, stealing vehicles and scrounging food and ammo from our enemies, and hiding in the wilderness.

In all seriousness, a rigger might be wisest. Probability is, we'll have to get out of a site ASAP. If we're under fire, a rigger makes that easiest.

<quietly points out that we do, already, have a rigger complete with a spiffy Vehicle Control Rig 2 and everything, but returns to the skillyfully ignored position he's apparently been in for a while>

Yeah, Lime is a rigger. And I'm pretty sure he'll have enough cash to do both drones and a vehicle. As for me, I'm changing my character slightly. I'm making Kenjiro an adversary shaman, because I've always wanted to do that, and being behind enemy lines will likely provide me with neither the time nor the conjuring materials to summon more elementals once I use up the ones I go in with. Also, I'm changing one piece of his history. Instead of quiting the military, warrant officer Muramasa Kenjiro was drummed out for insubordination after he refused to fire upon a group of peaceful protestors. Being an adversary shaman, he tends to sympathise with protestors. Not to say he'll be a bad team player; he'll sometimes be rude to the team leader, but he'll obey orders and save all your asses time and time again.

Incidentaly, if you want a player who can be relied upon to post regularly, Panzer and I are certainly golden in that area. We both check the boards a few times a day.

Sorry Lime, I didn't notice. Apologies!

Hehehe...Didn't shoot the protesters, eh? Kinda the opposite of my character. "Hey, they got kids guarding the place. Kids with guns!...They're firing." "Scrag em." "Yes, sir." Yep. She and her team scragged a bunch of kiddie-soldiers.

Those were kids. They were gnomes dressed like kids. Damn tricky bastards. <shakes his fist in the air>

S'true, s'true.

I hope we get lots of shiny nuyen to play with. Flatline needs a nova-hot deck to play with. MPCP 8, at the least. Decks aren't cheap, in my experience, specially when you cook em yourself.

They're dirt cheap if you cook 'em yourself. It just takes time. A loooooot of time. Especially for the software components.

Give her a shop and Flattie'll do it herself right quick and fast. Build herself a rig that'd make the Fairlight cry cause she's an artiste, man. Schooled in the old ways and read way too much Gibson growing up.

ok maybe if we said what we don't need.

We don't need another stealthy killer.

We don't want another shaman. If we did get another mage I would think Hermetic combat with some illusion/communications spells would be best.

We don't apperently neeed another rigger, though (no offense Clockwork) Clockworks character is listed as a EW expert. I feel one rigger to fight them, and in the firefight destroy them, is a good thing, but hey that's just my preference.

So if we look at it that way, none of the below characters really fit. They all duplicate rolls already filled. And I know Ronin said overlap was good, we still need some things that I don't think we have.

A demo expert with engineering skills.... any
A heavy weapons expert (anti armor/air)
A full combat mage

So of the characters left I would still say BGMFH or Panzergeist (the latter only if he is a mage, not a Shaman).

Panzergeist (Sorcerer/Hermtic/Shaman?) Only if he is hermetic, not another Shaman.
BGMFH (Combat Rigger)
Toturi (SBS Pointman/PhysAd)
Beast of Revolutions (ex jap-imperial marine PhysAd/Combat expert)

As for the illusionary spells I can cover most of them.... actually prolly easiest if I just list the spells I got so peeps can spot the holes.....

Imp Invis
Stunbolt
Inc Reflexes +3
Stealth
Phys Camp (oh god I love this spell)
Phys Mask
Levitate
Heal
Create Food
Stunball
Mind Probe

And yes before you ask quite a few are force 1 'cos quite frankly for indirect illusions you don't need more than force 1 cos they've gotta get more successes than me *8-> As for metamagics.... heh let's just say incoming spells should be funny.... for us *8->

I'm not saying that having another rigger would be bad, just that we do have a rigger (contrary to an assumption a lot of people were making).

I do still have to agree that a hermetic or other magician capable of conjuring elementals (such as an Elven Path Magician) would be the best compliment for the team. Sure, conjuring them in the field is a bitch, but the nice thing about hermetics is that they can conjure (repeatedly) before the mission, cranking up dozens upon dozens of services, for their full compliment of elementals and have them ready at a moments notice with no risk of Drain in the field (thus letting them focus more on offensive spells). But this is just turning into a bit of a rant.

So my vote's on a combat-oriented magician first, a heavy weapons and gunnery specialist second, and another ground-based combat rigger third.

On a side note, we do already have a Demolitionist and Engineer.

By the way, can someone either explain to me or point to the direct link for Raygun's modified rules on body armor? All I see when I click on the Armor link on his menu is information cut-and-pasted directly from technical manuals and nothing about the rules thereof.

Ok My mistake, I was simply going off of what Ronin posted as the team makeup, and I must have missed Gob, sorry buddy. So a Full combat mage is what I am hearing as what the teams needs.


As for the kink, as Fortune would say....

Linkage

As fa as I know he only has alternate rules for Firearms and none for armor. Though they may be hidded someplace other than his 'rules' section. While I am a big fan of raygun, I only use a couple of his rules.

Hmm. I've just always heard people saying that Raygun's overpowered (by Shadowrun standards -- a 12M pistol?) firearms are "balanced" by his armor rules. I've just never been able to find those on his site, so I was curious.

I would be glad to play a hermetic. I was just thinking of being an adversary shaman so I could get +2 to combat and elemental manipulation spells, which seems to be what we need the most. But I'll go with whatever the team wants.

Hermetics can gain bonuses, too. Earth Elemental Mages (not Aspected Elementalists) gain +2 dice with Manipulation Spells and Earth Elementals and -1 die with Detection Spells and Air Elementals, whereas Fire Elemental Mages gain +2 dice with Combat Spells and Fire Elementals and -1 with Illusion Spells and Water Elementals. etc. The info can be found in the beginning of Magic in the Shadows.

If you really want to go with an Adversary Shaman, it's your choice and you have to play a character you're going to love. I just think that for purposes of diversity and to make the team well-rounded, a Hermetic or Path Magician (capable of summoning nature spirits and elementals) would be best.

If I could pick or choose any type of magician to have in the group, it would definitely be an Elven mage on the Path of the Warrior. +1 die with Combat Spells, another +1 die to Combat Spells in Winter and/or with 72 hours of Groundhog's Day and/or while in hills or mountains, and the ability to summon all elementals except Air Elementals, but gaining +2 dice for the ability to summon nature Spirits of the Land in its place. The only drawback is that you suffer -1 on Illusion spells (which our Medic seems to be covering) and you "have" to take a Combat Skill at Rating 4 or higher -- oh, the agony.

Summary: At least +1 die for Combat Spells and often more in a lot of places we'd be traveling, ability to summon a host of elementals beforehand in addition to summoning Spirits of the Land (that's Desert, Mountain, Prarie, and Forest Spirits, all of which have Concealment, Movement, and Guard powers in addition to being powerful combatants) in the field, and naturally attuned to being a merc. Sweet deal all around.

But that's just me. Again, you have to play what you're going to enjoy.

I'm still of the belief we have magic covered. We have a shaman to deal with spirits, astral and all that nasty... and we've got six people with guns to cover combat. A combat focused mage would only add firepower, while one of the adepts would add another person who can pull a trigger, or get up close and quiet, which for my money is more valuable for a low key approach. You can't exactly hide a fireball, neh?

I'm pretty sure a Mage can pull a trigger and maneuver quietly (it only takes two or three spells to have combat covered; that leaves a bunch of Spell Points open for other spells), too. Not to mention all the other things they can do. They're way more versatile than an adept, and again... you can never have too much magic. It's not like D&D where they only have 4 hit points, either.

A sneaky guy with an insane weapons skill or two isn't that vital when everyone's combat and stealth oriented.

The best part about magicians is that they can imbue their abilities on others (like those who need to be sneaky but aren't, yet need to get on sight undetected in order to do something within their field). Adepts can't.

To be frank, it sound like this mage (when Panzer isn't waffling over what to make him) is going to be something less than stealthy. Advesary shamans beserk after all, and that's exactly what we -don't- need in a crunchtime situation.

I agree that we don't want to have someone berserking. On the other hand, I still favor magic, for its more varied possibilities. We already have a mage with improved invis and an assassination specialist, even my character will have good stealth and shooting. I don't think that having two guys who can go astral, summon, etc, is bad at all, more to the opposite. A big difference comes for spell defense and spell sustaining!!

Hey Ronin (and everyone else),

I realise this is kind of late, but if you're still considering submissions for the last spot, I'd like to throw mine in.

My concept is for a Face character, specifically an Interpreter/Interrogator, someone to facilitate communication with the natives and take care of...conflict resolution...

...but don't worry, besides being a language/cultural expert he'll also know how to find the safety on a gun.

I'll flesh it out and try to send it in by tonight.

I believe Grey, our team leader, is exactly that style of character, too.

Where the heck did you get that idea Heroin? Of course my mage will have stealth and improved invisibility.

I've never heard Panzer accused of lack of stealth. Quite the opposite in fact. He sometimes has to be begged to stand up and fight.

Thanks for the glowing support buddy.

I would be happy to be a mage, provided you guys don't think that running out of elementals and not being able to summon more will be a problem.

Snag Talismongering as a Knowledge Skill and the summoning materials will be dirt cheap. Creating a temporary circle only requires a few nuyen, and you can do that in a couple of hours, so you could do it in the field if you absolutely had to when we make camp. But with proper preperation, that shouldn't be necessary very often except for prolonged time in the field.

By the way, my character is a great complement to grey, as he has background in sociology and has done some spying for the CIA as well. He has Etiquette at 8 and the edge Aptitude Interrogation, cause he's an expert at getting information out of prisoners or other people on whom he might for example use drugs.

(where/in which book can I find info about drugs that make someone more talkative?... Also, I'd like to have chips with maps to put in my chipjacks, is this a Geography knowledge skill chip or what?)

Drugs can be found in the Chemicals & Drugs chapter of Man & Machine. Both Gamma-Scopolamine (in the main book) and Laes are really good for your style of character, though the latter one tends to be a wee bit difficult to acquire or brew.

And you want Mapsofts for the Maps (main book, Skillsofts section). My character should have quite of a few of those and has the capability to create them on site via his drones and an Orientation System.

All the discussion is great so far. Sorry I haven't been around to post much, but I've had a very busy weekend.

As for the ops you guys will be doing, let me see if I can give you a better feel for the missions you'll be executing.

On one hand, you guys will have to do some typical SF type missions, including recon, raids, maybe an extraction or two. These missions will probably take you into the field for days at a time, and you'll likely be on foot. But then you will have to do other things, like maybe destroying a covoy, or demo-ing an enemy camp. Then you will have missions that require you to blend in with the populace, doing legwork and other Spook type things. I wish I could give you guys more details, but I don't want to give away the whole deal.

Keep in mind that you guys are paid for your skills and flexibility. If Ares needed pure infantry work, they wouldn't hire you guys. They need a team that is super-flexible, and can do whatever it takes (including comandeering a tank or stealing a FedBoeing Eagle) to get the job done...no matter what that job is.

As for your characters, eveyone will have thier place and their moment to shine. I don't expect anyone to be sitting on the sidelines because there is nothing for their characters to do. And since this isn't a PnP game, feel free to split up if you have to. It shouldn't be any more difficult for me to handle two to four groups, since I'm not under a time constraint.

Chupacabras:
Sorry man, I would love to let you in, but there just isn't the space in this team. Hold on to that character, though, because you might just have a spot in my next one.

After careful consideration, I think Panzer's character is probably the best to round out the team. I don't know how much you guys have in the way of melee combat, but there seems to be a consensus that my ex-Shalin ex-marine character isn't what you need most.

Oh well! Thanks anyway...

If you don't mind Ronin, can I go ahead and send you the character just the same? Maybe you could keep me on standby in case someone should drop out or somesuch?

-Chupa

Since we've been working together for quite a while, what do you guys say about us each investing a few points into some dead and/or rare language to use on the radio? It's a classic but valuable tactic for security, and adds a bit of coolness and cohesiveness to us as a team.

If so, feel free to offer up some suggestions. Navajo used to be used by a lot of Special Forces groups, but since the Awakening and the creation of the NAN, that's probably not as secure as it could be. Outer Mongolian, Aramaic, or maybe some obscure African language might be a good choice.

Thats a good idea Clock... We probably couldn't find a language that is completly unused, but we could pick one that is hard to learn, I have heard Latin is very difficult, and it has the added benefit of sounding cool. But whatever anyone can some up with is cool.