Greetings all, and welcome to the TANGO DOWN! pre-game thread. As you can tell, I'll be running a Merc/SpecOps game that's going to start out in Seattle but mostly take place in Azerbaijan, circa 2064.

What I'm looking for here is a bunch of players who are interested in building a team from scratch, not simply a group of individuals who happen to work well together. I'm encouraging discussion amongst interested parties about who in the team should fill what role, etc.

Character generation for this game will be handled a little backwards...I want to see character backgrounds/histories before I assign build points...and if your background is good enough and thorough enough, I might just give you a few extra BP.

I'd like to see some skill-heavy characters, with lots of experience in either a military organization or corp para-military unit.

Anyone who is interested but needs some help sculpting your character, please PM or e-mail (chris.louviere@ieminc.com) me. I would be more than happy to help you guys along.

Sounds interesting. Question though.... Where the hell is Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijan is on the Caspian sea, bordering Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Iran.

I picked it because there really isn't any info about it in all of the SR sources for me to screw up, so I can pretty much have free reign with the country without contradicting anything canon.

For the lowdown, check this link: http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbo...ok/geos/aj.html

Ooh, this does look promising.

Beyond just mercs/special ops types, do you have any personal preferences that you'd like to see? What I mean is, what would your dream team consist of (ability-wise)? Should we focus on specialists, or generalists who can double-up on several abilities in case one or more go down? Magic heavy or light? Culturally and racially diverse? etc.

Or is this up for prospective players to decide?

Being that I usually play sneaking spec-op characters.... I want a Troll Heavy Hitter slot.

I'm tinkering around with the idea of ork who's some kind of electronic warfare specialist or a combat mage of some type at the moment myself. It usually takes me a few days to come up with a solid idea, though.

Yeah, I'd like a better idea as to what you are looking for. Troll with Max-Gyro mounted LMG or something a little more subtile. I'm still real flexable and may end up dumping the Heavy Hitter idea all together depending on how things go.

I'd like to play an adept. A stealthy close combat type with pimped-out sword skill. I'll have a background in a day or two.

Holy crap man! I'm reading through the document for this country and its concidered to be one of the worst polluted areas in the world. Umm... Time to change to an idea I've had for a Toxic/Bug hunter.

Does the CIA website also say that Azerbijan has WMDs? I would like to play as well. I'm thinking of a shaman, probably thunderbird or shark or some other combat-oriented totem.

You know, I know what I would like to see as the "perfect team", but I really don't want to railroad anyone in to playing what I want them to play. Let's see if I can put together a few guidelines.

1. The characters should have military/para-military experience. I would prefer people with Elite backgrounds (Delta, (U)CAS Army SF, SEALs, Wildcats, Ares Firewatch, etc.). However, I would be more than willing to work with someone who wants a bit different background. I would even be willing to have people with Intelligence Community background.

2. It's good to have specialists, but everyone should be able to do more than one thing. A good frame for a team is the Special Forces A-Team (http://sf.goarmy.com/alpha.htm). Of course, I don't want to try to run 12 players, 6 would be ideal, so here are the bases I think we need covered:

Team Leader (any combo of skills/specialties + good social/leadership skills)

Weapons Expert (someone who knows guns/grenades/weapons systems of all kinds, plus can pull sniper duty)

Communications Expert (this could be decker/rigger double duty, or anything in between)

Engineer Expert (primariy to handle demo and electronic security)

Magical Expert (Your full Hermetic/Shaman, customized for field work)

Medical Expert (Think DocWagon HTR medic...)


Just consider the above as suggestions. Like I said, I don't want to railroad you guys. I will be flexible...and I'll let you guys know if your team is missing any needed skills.

I'm up to take either Team Leader or Weapons Expert. Hmm... I'm seeing a good background for a Weapons Expert/Sniper, so I think I'll go that route.

I like what I'm seeing so far guys. Keep up the brainstorming.

Here's a few more details:

I'm looking a bit more for SF types than Line-Infantry types. Combat will most likely consist of lightning fast raides and guerilla warfare. I'm not totally against trolls, but they aren't the most inconspicuous people.

Of course, everyone should be at least a half-decent shooter...even the mages/deckers/riggers.

Also, your characters need to have some experience in Middle East/Eastern Europe theaters.

One thing I was thinking about for linking the characters together is having them all having been a part of some joint corp/multinational task force for a big op somewhere in the middle east. You guys worked together and bonded before returning to your respective services. Then, after that you all hooked up again to become "Civilian Contracters" in high threat theaters.

As a side note, all of you have SINs and are legal citizens. You can have all the permits you need to legally acquire (no Street Index, yay!) your gear...but I would advise against using it in your native country.

Does that include Mil-Spec armor?

Oh, and I already nixed the Troll idea. I'm going Human.

I'd rather stay away from the Mil-Spec armor in CC. You guys will need maximum mobility and the ability to blend in with your surroundings.

You should be avoiding any prolonged firefights anyway.

You will also most likely be required to interface with the local population at some point or other, so walking around looking like the terminator would probably make that impossible.

I would also ask that no matter what your background/personality, your character work well with others and be a good team player. Please, no brooding/anti-social types.

I have some house rules that I use, but I won't post them until we get the character concepts together. Also, I treat Raygun's site as canon for my games, so it's good to check it out if you haven't already.

Hey Clockwork, I dig the EW Ork idea. I happen to LOVE the EW rules in R3, and use them whenever I can in my games. An EW expert can also handle Commo and Rigger duties. However, don't feel like you HAVE to play that sort of character.

Ok I wasn't going to submit an idea.... but this seems really cool. I have an Ork sniper who was on the fast track to Special Forces.

I actually made the character for another game, but I really like the concept so I stuck with him. I will email you history and you tell me if you like it or not.

Dibs on Commo Man!

I got a *nice* Cranial Rigger who could handle this kind of stuff easily.

How many build points are we talking here? Just a general range. And will you allow drakes/shifters/cultured/betaware/stuff with availability higher than 8? If we are mercs, it would make sense for us to have a bit heavier firepower than runners. I'm not sure quite what I want my shaman to be.

I think Ronin's ID is that your history determines your build points. You could probably safely assume that it will be at least 123 pts.

They Ork I submited, Downtown, was active in Eastern Europe and the middle east throughout his 8 year military career.

I love the idea of us all being Army buddies who banded together post service to work for our selves.

That works for me. I was just offering up a suggestion, hoping to spur some more from others.

Out of curiousity, approximately how long will we have been working together since our official team-up?

I'm thinking a year or two, through 3 contracts...all with Ares Arms.

You guys work together, train together, and drink together. In fact, I'll even let you guys use hand and arm signals for most of your LOS communication...you all know how to talk to each other without saying a word.

Where can I find this Raygun's site you mentioned?

Working for Ares? Cool! My guy is all true blood American and stuff. I'm also going with a Catholic theme for him. His call sign is Azreal (the Angel of Death).

Ok, so no Milspec Armor, but what about Anti-Matériel Rifles from Raygun?

Well, I guess it all depends on if we are going up against people or tanks.

Hey Panzer, click on my sig for a ton of cool SR sites, including the aforementioned Raygun!

BTW, Raygun is Dumpshocks resident firearms expert.

I found this pic for my character. I'm totally gunna base my character off that guy from Saving Private Ryan.

Shadow: Two snipers is never a bad thing, right? Besides, I'll also have pistols, launch weapons, and demolitions to round it out.

Yeah and my guy isn't anything really but a sniper/stealth expert. He can shoot a AR or a pistol, but he shines with a riffle.

Downtown

Hey guys, what about BattleTac? Is the Rigger/Team Leader a tactics kind of guy? We could all have Cyberlinks to make it all kinds of nasty.

As far as equipment goes, don't worry about it right now. Some stuff will be available, some won't. Some equipment will be your personally, some will be issued to you by whomever offers you your next contract.

Try not to build your characters around any specific piece of equipment. Sure that AMR might be avabilable to you right off the bat, or you may end up having to find what you can once you are in country.

Gear should be totally secondary to what the characters themselves can do.

Oh, I know, I just start getting ideas and all sorts of things pop up. I'm just throwing around ideas right now.

Let me throw up one of my house rules now, as it should help you guys get a feel for things when it comes to firearms in my game.

In my games, the FIREARMS skill is a general skill that covers all small arms except for what I classify as machine guns. It has two specializations, LONGARMS and HANDGUNS. Longarms covers anything remotely rifle-like that is fired from the shoulder. Handguns covers anything pistol-like. Machineguns now fall under the GUNNERY skill, and I've abolished the HEAVY WEAPONS skill.

Ronin, you meantioned using Rayguns site as canon... Do you use his alternate rules for RoF and ranges?

So assault rifles falls under Firearms, while an LMG is Gunnery? Just making sure. I was going to go with an LMG anyway, so it'll save some future skill points that way.

If you're sufficiently big and strong, and the LMG has hella low recoil for an LMG, which the SAW does, then it can indeed be used as a big assault rifle. The M249's recoil borders on witchcraft. It kicks less than a lot of SMGs and assault rifles.

I agree. It CAN be used like an assault rifle, although it's much more effective in its intended role as a machinegun. Like I said, my rules have more to do with use than function. The WAY you generally use a SAW is different than the way you generally use an M-16. Now, if you really want to nitpick, I'd probably let you default to LONGARMS with maybe a +1 for using a SAW like an assault rifle.

Good evening,

I'd be interested in taking the slot of the Communications Specialist for your game, if at all possible. As per your request, I can have a character description/background forwarded to you through PM within twenty-four hours. I am, however, curious. When do you intend to start this game?

Perfect. Thank you.

Hey, since we are all from such different locales, we need to choose a common language for all of us to get. My character is from Japan, so he'll have to know Japanese, but he'll have enough intelligence to get one or two other languages. I suggest we all take one language in common, and then try to know as many languages as possible between us all. Also, we need a name for the outfit. I suggest we be called The Spartiates, because that's a badass name.

My character will have Chinese and Japanese, but I can get one more. And the Spartiates does sound like a great name. The Spartiates: Born to fight.

Considering we're all speaking English, that would be my suggestion.

I'm designing a Russian ork, CWO Vladimir Rozhenko, originally from the Spetsnaz Unit Vympel (an anti-terrorist special forces group) prior to becoming a Merc. His specialty is electronic warfare and communications, but he's also an expert in drone reconnaisance and piloting (read: rigger) in addition to being an "old school" style greasemonkey. Born only a few dozen kilometers north of the border of Azerbaijan, Rozhenko has an intimate familiarity with much of the local terrain and customs, so he should be able to help the team use the land to its best advantage.

His languages will most likely include Russian, Turkish, Arabic (though just barely), and English, but he'll also be able to slot just about any language necessary via a Chipjack and a nice selection of Linguasofts dependant upon the mission.

Okay...here's my last post for this evening before I hit the sack.

#1: Languages. It would be ideal for English to be the common language amongst the players. Also, you should all plan to speak at least a little of one or two middle eastern/eastern european dialects. Don't worry about how many points you have for languages...that decision is up to me in the long run.

#2: Location. Sorry if I didn't make this clear from the beginning, but you guys will be officially based in Seattle. You all met during a joint op in the middle east, and will be doing an op in Azerbiajan, but you don't call the middle east your home. And I haven't decided exactly where your other contracts have taken you, but not all of your ops are centered in the middle east.

#3: Background. For me to make a decision on how many BPs to give you or what skills to assign to you, I need some pretty detailed background on your character's training. For example, "he was in the Army" doesn't give me much, but "he served 8 years in the UCAS Army Thaumaturgical Corps, and spent most of that time assigned to a recon company" gives me a lot more to go with.

#4: I need all of the characters to be airborne qualified. That means at least a parachuting skill of 3.

#5: What...no former SAS guys? Hmmmph...I'm disappointed.

#6: Spartiates. How in the HELL do you pronounce that???

I could have a good time with the Medic role, I believe. I'll send along a background in the next day or so. Sound good, boss?