Tell me about the character you've always wanted to play but never had the chance.

Concepts and themes, not stat blocks or builds.

Will totally respond to this one tomorrow after I write it all up. You want it here or PM?

An AI who evolved from a deep space probe's Pilot program, is sociopathically calm at all times, randomly (and inappropriately) calls people Dave, and wants his teammates to know that he has the greatest possible enthusiasm for the mission.

Here is fine.

Tanegar: interesting. "I can't let you do that Dave."

I've wanted to play Bongo Slade for a while now. Tried him in a DS game and in Missions, but things kept falling through.

He's in the Cast of Shadows listing HERE. I like the vignette I wrote for him. Obviously he can be restatted as per your chargen scheme.

Bongo's a brash young musician, a drummer. He's on a quest to find the 'Heartbeat of Gaia', and wants to play it one day. He's not accommodating with authority, and has dabbled in whatever was necessary to make ends meet, short of wetwork. Scamming, subterfuge, misdirection, languages are his tools.

I see him as a black-humor comic relief character. Very much an advocate of the Alexandrian solution: the quickest way to unravel a knot is to cut it in half. Most of the intraparty conflict will be the biological runners trying to persuade the AI (inhabiting a combat drone, of course) that no, gunning down everyone in the building under the guise of eliminating witnesses really isn't a stealthy approach.

Hacking adept pixie.

I also had a fun character in 3e, a former Ghost best-selling poet whose muse was sniping, that I've always wanted to convert to 4th.

If there is still space, I started a mystic adept martial arts healer based on the Iron Monkey movie. This was in the game Oriental Opportunites, and I enjoyed the character very much. It was a karmagen character, so would need to be remade, but Dr Yang is here.

You never know. Method might like karmagen. Great picture!

Well let me elaborate on what I'm thinking. I was being deliberately vague because I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for and didn't want to unduly influence people. I am currently involved in two groups, neither of which is very regular, due in large part to my schedule. Lookin for other ways to get my SR fix, I was thinking of starting a PbP game, but I've never had much luck with them.

I've been thinking for a long while that PbP games tend to stall (and die) when one or two players disappear for long periods and the plot cannot move forward because the story is dependent on the actions of the missing PCs (or worse- GM).

What I'm thinking of doing is running a sandbox-style game with 2-3 totally unrelated solo PCs. Really it would be like 2-3 different games lumped into the same batch of threads for my convenience. Each player would have their own story. Ideally there would be a "revolving cast" of PCs so that if one story goes dormant for a certain period (maybe a month) that PC goes on hold and someone waiting in line can jump in and play. If the dormant PC comes back later, his story picks up where it left off.

So what I'm looking for would be well rounded (not necessarily self-sufficient but close) PCs with compelling back stories and proactive players who will take an active role in driving their character's story. This last part is (I believe) a necessity for a successful sandbox-style game.

I'm still hammering out the details in my head (and trying to assess how much time and energy I really have to commit to this). But anyway that's the idea.

It seems like a game like this would lend itself to some of the subsystems that usually get glossed over because they usually only involve one PC. For example, I've often found myself playing a hacker and wishing more of his "idle" matrix-time could get the spotlight in the story. GMs usually entertain a hacker stealing the scene when he's doing legwork for the mission, but most hackers spend a lot more time doing other interesting things in the matrix than just facebook-stalking the team's next mark. Same goes for riggers who might like to get into a car chase (or race) that would normally hog too much of the game-time, or mages who might want to do a bunch of stuff in the astral.

No specific proposal at this point, but this game concept does sound like it could open up some interesting possibilities .

A guy like Bongo could be doing gigs in Seattle or wherever, interacting with the entertainment industry, maybe rubbing up against some underworld machinations. (That is sort of what was happening in Way of the Yen before that thread died.) He's wandered off into the wilderness more than once, looking for people who might give him insight into the nature of Gaia.

If the PCs will be going solo, it may be productive to give them a little more starting BP/karma to flesh out survivability.

Blackhat: my thoughts exactly. And the basis of my vague initial post. I can think of a whole world of interseting characters that don't lend themselves to team-based games. Plus it allows for more individual character development.

Hmm. I think I'd have to modify my HAL-homage, then. He's kind of team-dependent, as written: a psycho AI basically can't get by in metahuman society on its own.

I think "Junior" might be a better fit for this type of campaign. Real name and alias TBD. The concept here is a young street samurai who was being trained by a more experienced partner, possibly even a prime runner. One of the mentor's enemies finally caught up with the pair, and the mentor held him off while the student escaped. Now the enemy is hunting Junior, too, wanting to wipe out the mentor's legacy.

I found the link, HERE, to a 850 karma version of Bongo, the latest incarnation, that I played for a very short time last year. 53 questions flesh out his persona.

It includes a poem he likes!

If this story would focus more on down-time, I have a rigger concept based on a SR3 character I used to play. Could definitely spend a lot of time going into the minutae of designing, building and maintaining drones and vehicles. Also, plenty of solo courier runs and delivery / extraction possibilities for a character that comes with his own backup team of drones. I have a short story about the original floating about somewhere that is loosely based on an actual run (although it's a significantly karma and cash enhanced version of what I could make with 400 BP).

Its a very interesting idea you have there Method. It shares some properties with the 2072 thread. In that thread there are multiple stories (two at the moment), and different groups of players / GMs. Both Aria and I are a GM in one story and a player in the other. The multiple stories interweave with each other. There is no obligation to post quickly, so if someone lags behind the other groups I'm quite happy as the GM to white wash over the problem.

Mostly it works, but it has a (small) problem that if one game has a faster interaction rate than the other, it can be very difficult to find the previous posts. This problem would be amplified with more threads.

I think the idea you have has a few challenges, which can be resolved. Shadowrun (and many RPGs) recommend lots of specialists. The value of this is that in a group each has their moment to shine. It is very doable to make an enjoyable generalist (I have one in 2072 with around 14 die in most things expect magic) but I don't think its easy to make very variants on that. As an example if you have X die in perception/social skills/hacking/combat/driving, then you are very similar (except of course for the role playing of the character) to others with X die in the same skills.

In films these problems are typically solved by having a main archetype who gathers a gang of sidekicks around him, or the story just doesn't focus in the main on the weakness. So for example if I was playing Dr Yang who is behind the times with the Matrix, I would probably have a friendly hacker or the matrix wouldn't play a big part. A technomancer might spend most of the story in the Matrix and with drones, or could have some friendly muscle, or a relationship with a group of gangers.

In Way of the Yen, the GM had each PC do an individual run, a relatively small one, at the start to introduce the PCs to the players, and to set up some plot hooks. It worked pretty well.... until players started disappearing. Stretching that a bit, it might be possible for each PC here to do side runs (info/shakedown/ID generation.. whatever) for others, coordinated through one fixer (the GM).

Fractal
Hacker, Social Butterfly, Man of a Thousand Faces, and That many Voices.
He's an all around hacker. Hacking, Social Engineering, Crowd Sourcing, these are all his bag.
Noone knows what he looks like, or is completely sure what gender he is. His Matrix Icon is a very complex 3d Fractal. In person, he never goes anywhere without a disguise. He keeps handfuls of low level SiNs that he rotates through and uses. He does all his hacking from public places, usually completely disguised and rarely uses the same place twice.

His big tag: Natural Linguist + Mnemoning Enhancement.
He learns languages ridiculously quickly, and becomes proficient very quickly. He can even take a linguasoft and make himself appear to be native (with some work).

He works better if he's able to create SiN's at least low level ones. But, if not, it's just another money sink for him to spend into.

Cool! S/he and Bongo share this. They could spend a few days doubling their languages with each other!

I have to say: this game looks increasingly like everyone wants to play a hacker. Maybe the characters all know each other through an online hacker club, and the mission could be something related to that?

If this does end up being a hacking-oriented game, I'd love to roll out a character I have in cold storage who's an EW wizard. Dedicated EW characters only really make sense in military or hacking-based game, so this would be a great opportunity. And while Cherry doesn't learn languages all that fast, I think she spoke something like 5 languages in my last build of her.

Anyway, Cherry comes from a military and academic background. She's a skilled EW operator, and has served in ELINT and EW in a professional capacity. She recently finished her PhD, and her doctoral thesis (developed in part with funding by Ares, who owns the product) has gone on to be a fundamental part of most Ares EW packages in the world now - she's moderately famous in the right circles. She is, if possible, currently employed part-time as a contractor (probably for Ares, again, if that works). She is, however, something of a wreck in her personal life due to a dangerously escalating addiction to snuff BTLs. She got into that shit when she was in the military, hacking into the simsense feeds from soldiers being killed in action for the rush. She isn't past the edge - she slots maybe once or twice a week - but her particular kink is hard and expensive to find, so she does runs on the side to help get access to it (and also, she claims, for real life experience that will help her design better products).

If Ares doesn't work, she could easily work for NeoNET or Evo. If you don't want our runners having day jobs and/or being attached to corps, I can work with that too.

Hmm. Junior and Fractal as on-the-ground operatives, with a gaggle of hackers as mission control. That could actually be pretty interesting.

Well, depending on the point totals, etc...
Fractal can be tweaked to also have athletics/stealth.
Might be tough, Fractal doesn't really have big stats, but that's a whole lot of skillpoints.
Even with Skillwires.

Fractal wouldn't need a lot of Athletics or Stealth; say one rank in each, just enough to get rid of the defaulting penalty. If he's a social engineer, he already has the skills to be a good face, since facing is basically social engineering. Junior has some social skills, and could teamwork it with Fractal in a pinch. Mostly, though, I was thinking Fractal would handle the social heavy lifting and any up-close hacking needs (hardware that isn't accessible through the Matrix), while Junior takes care of infiltration and combat. The EW specialist runs sensor overwatch, while other hackers run Matrix overwatch and handle any hacking that can be handled from offsite.

that would work, and yes, Fractal has the cracking, electronics, and social groups at 4, with cyberware to enhance them. (Though not first impression).

I haven't used karma gen a lot, but I am not opposed to it. Karma gen seems to lend itself to building more rounded characters, which would be beneficial for our purposes. I'd have to think about the karma allotments, but part of my plan is to allow people to build their character at different levels (probably something like: high/prime, middle/professional or low/street).

I wouldn't say downtime is going to be a focus per se, but more of an equal component. Downtime tends to get glossed over in team-based games, but in a solo game if you (that is the player) want to focus your posts on some downtime I'm all for it (as long as you don't spend months in RL).

I wouldn't mind working out a quid pro quo situation and getting to play a little, in fact part of this idea is borrowed from Fuch's "Quid Pro Quo" game a few years back. But that might be another project altogether.

This is exactly the kind of thing I'm hoping to avoid. If the characters are un-connected there is no need to "white wash" or ret-con or wait or whatever. That story just goes back on the shelf until such time as the player returns and there is an opening (again there will be a cap on active players).

Very likely I will include the option to by other PC's as contacts (with that player's consent). Their cost will be based on the BP/karma used in said PC's build, but this will be allowed only with a stern warning: involving someone else's PC in your game is done at your own peril. If that player disappears your story goes on hold too or you will have to "play on" (the PC doesn't show up where he's supposed to, hangs you out to dry, abandons you on a run, etc.)

In deed. But this is not your standard fare. This is going to require all involved to shift their thinking a little bit. First, builds will need to be more generalized. My goal will be to balance the world such that you don't need a DP of 16 to tie your shoes, but everyone will need to know a little bit about computers (for example). In other words, your characters shouldn't be built as specialist team-members but more like the main character of a novel. BP/Karma allotments will reflect this somewhat, but again I don't expect every PC to be good at everything.

Which brings me to my next point: a solo game is much more easily tailored to fit the character's abilities, both in a metagame and in character sense. What I mean is if the PC is an Occult Investigator (for example) his fixer isn't going to send him on hacking jobs. He might need a little bit of hacking to get his job done (i.e.- the Matrix doesn't cease to exist because you're playing a magic user), but that might entail a more social hacking approach or calling on a contact (which will be a major facet of this game) or just finding a less direct way to solve the problem.

Yep. See the above. To elaborate a little players will have an allotment of free "contact" points based on CHA that will likely be higher than the usual CHAx2 you see around here. Probably something like CHAx5 or maybe even CHAx10. The caveat is that I handle contacts a little differently, but we will get to that. The point being, who you know will be as important (and is some cases more so) than what you know.


Missing the whole point my friend. Again, this is going to require a shift in thinking. I am not interested in running a team-based game (per se) or hacker themed game (per se).

No, I understand - but we're going to want the characters to interact somewhat, aren't we? A mutual interest could help a lot on that front.

I'm ready to retool Bongo Slade(s) when you have the chargen concept worked out, Method.

OH

MY

GOD

I didn't realize Dr. Yang was based on Iron Monkey! One of the favorite movies of me and my best friends in college. You knew that when a semi-circle got drawn in the dirt, some ass was about to be kicked.

Now it makes me want to go back and recreate a character from the movie too

One of the finest movies ever...and I get to draw circles in the ground. Even the son was based on it. I guess I should have bought exotic weapon/umbrella.

My next character has to be the evil monk though...

Ah, how could I not have seen the signs? I've lost face

Flying Sleeves!

Buddha Palm!

AND to actually add something on-topic to this discussion...I'd be interested in playing this kind of game.

My character concept would be sort of a fixer / face idea. I think this aspect of the game is very often ignored, esp. when min-maxing. Knowing the right person at the right time seems like it's really vital for a run. It also presents a ton of RP-able situations for the player / GM. It sounds like you're more on-board with this since you mention having something like CHA * 10 in contact points.

The character wouldn't so much be an infiltrator with disguise out the wazoo. More like, he knows a security guard who can leave a side door open, or a janitor who wouldn't mind helping smuggle a small package in. Or a gang who would love to help with a distraction. If he doesn't know anybody who can help immediately, he can work to make those connections. Social engineering is still the best option in almost all cases.

I'm thinking sort of a Vincent-like character - the character has spent time running the shadows, has some of the necessary skills for surviving on a run, and has over time built up this vast network of people he knows and has associated with. He still runs the shadows but now takes less of a "confrontational" role.

I've found that over time, each new character I create has more contacts than the last one. I think this time I'd like to actually create a character with that in mind

I'm definitely interested in playing.
I've got a few character concepts I've been rolling around in my head, so if the first one doesn't jump out at you, I can pitch a few more.


So, a quick synopsis of the character would be a ganger trying to carve out a home for his crew in the barrens. Probably starting out as a lieutenant and eventually working up to leader of the gang, equal parts violence, cunning and charisma. I envision lots of shady backalley BTL deals, territory wars, mob connections and so on.

Got a sam/wheelman combo ready to go if you have room for a total newb.

Torque comes from money but ran off to join the army, dropped out to join a PMC, got fired and now has decided to give back to the ork community by putting his training to work running an armored cab service in the barrens.

I've got a couple ideas I could throw out.

One of my first shadowrun characters here on DS was a priest by the name of Padre. He was an adept who ran the shadows to raise enough money to keep his small, poor church afloat. His adept powers focused around "the Lord's protection," but he was rounded enough to be usable in a game like this. He was a genuinely nice guy who had to do some bad things to take care of his flock.

At the opposite end of the spectrum is my Mafia Cleaner, Vincent Mancini. He's a street-same focused build with enough variety to handle himself in a number of situations. He showed up in a couple of DS games, but they all died. He's polite but cold. A proper Cleaner. Never judgemental, and always willing to do the job.

I'm going to pitch a character concept.

There's a bunch of variants on the "Heroic Vampire Who Hunts Other Vampires" trope, like Blade, or in Shadowrun, Martin de Vries (although he's more "Jackass Vampire Who Hunts Other Vampires"). I wanted to do a different take on it, a somewhat-less-heroic vampire who preys on quote-evil-unquote mortals, but less as a selfless heroism/quest for revenge type deal, and more as a "I have to kill people to survive, but I don't want to be a horrible monster. So I'll just kill bad people. Or people who try to kill me first. And while I'm doing that... I kind of have to live off the grid anyways, and I need money..."

Card is a Nosferatu psuedo-vigilante. He shadowruns partly to pay the bills and partly to put him in contact with people whose souls he feels morally OK with consuming; he tries to avoid killing (or at least intentionally killing) people who don't "deserve it." He's really, really careful about hiding his true nature; he relies on a combination of magical and mundane abilities to disguise himself as a "normal" magician. He prefers to work alone most of the time because he knows that if he lets people get too close, they're more likely to see him for what he really is.

Dexter, with fangs, huh?

Actually, yeah, something like that.

I've got a concept thats that I've been thinking about for a while now.

He's an office worker who lived a life of boring mediocrity, when he awakened as an adept he thought that would change but it turned out that his new powers merely made him more suited for his job. So eventually out of a combination of repulsion for his superiors and the mind numbing crapness of his job he got his hands on as many black market tutorsofts as he could prepared to leave for the shadows. He'd be a generalist with a lot of edge to pull him through when he takes over from a specialist who's just been geeked and a dab hand at data searches.

Ohh man, I have 20+ different characters all with different concepts.

Cleric- A Technomancer who believes that other Technomancers are chosen beings specifically selected to run world governments by joining with AIs. Their Resonance bond gives them the tools to connect with and merge with an AI, that will create a group of people who understand humanity but also have the raw processing power to solve large problems.

Jigsaw- A surgeon (I had the name before Saw even came out, he started as D&D Necromancer so James Wan can go fuck himself) who specializes in interrogation and "parting out" people. Lots of contacts with Tanamous and similar groups, a very good medical support character. He's a little amoral and very cheerful about his work, often singing and sipping coffee creamer (no coffee, just the creamer) out of a smiley face cup while surgically removing people's fingers. This was a character that I got play for one session before the GM told me to pick a new character because this one gave him nightmares.

Zen- A physical Adept who is autistic. He learns martial arts moves by watching martial arts movies, specializes in disarming and disabling.

(Unnamed)- A physical Adept has-been magician and stage performer who can hurl a pen through a concrete wall. Flashy, showy, and prides himself on dispensing witty catchphrases. He has an affection for wearing bowler hats and carrying a sword cane.

Doc- An Infected Magician who was one of the most prominent doctors on the entire West coast. However he contracted the disease trying to help a young patient. Exiled from the medical community, he found a home in the shadows.

Nightmare- A mundane ex-CDC employee with a fixation on diseases, toxins, drugs and their various effects. He has (and makes great use) of a PAB unit, taking great pleasure in shooting someone up with a special cocktail and taking them on a ride through bad dreams. He's a crackshot with a crossbow as well.

And my absolute all-time favorite
Invictus- A mundane human pilot/driver who is famous for his nihilistic "live for today" attitude, loud punk music and look, as well as attempting (and usually succeeding) insane stunts while driving. This was the character that was dubbed the Patron Saint of Shadowrunners by the last group I played with. He even had three miracles too; he flipped off a military chopper and it exploded (GM rolled a critical fail when firing a missile), he survived having a bike explode under him, and he survived having about ten doses of different drugs shoot through his system. If you want un-orthodox solutions and direct action, Invictus is your man.

That's just the ones I could remember off the top of my head.

I have always wanted to play a character that was alive through all the shakeups. The idea is that he was there for the Seretech incedent, he was there for the awakening and the formation of Humanis. He was there for the fall of Canada and the United States of America. He was there for the treaty of Denver signing and the birth of the NAN. He was there for the birth of extraterritoriality and right on through. A man of living history. He's outlived his friends and family and is really just waiting to die of some painful, terminal disease. Then... he won a lottery when he was 100-ish or so. He used the money for a cure and leonization and bam! He's got a whole new life to live... and boy is he ever gonna live it! After all, now he has in idea on how to more fully enjoy his life. There will be no more passive observation, no day-in, day-out doldrums, no punching of the clock for a living only to spend life on a couch in front of an entertainment unit. He's no longer content to merely be there for history. Now he wants to make it!

So he's really hard to shake up because he's been through all the shakeups. He also has a new zest for life because he's seen all the changes and now is "young enough" to revel in them. He doesn't fear death because he's already gone through the 5 stages regarding it, but make no mistake, he has no intention of getting dead any time soon. He wants and craves new experiences. Since his life to that point had been pretty boring and he'd mostly just observed all the changes around him, now he wants out of the mundane life and to enjoy the thrills of risk and reward.

He'd get into good physical shape and learn to defend himself some, get the basics of essential computer skills and start to use his experience and new skills to live life on the wild side a little. He'd take on a leadership role without actually trying to due to his experience and his unwillingness to tolerate crap and stupidness. He'd be the calm within the storm, maintaining a cool head while the world falls apart around him and people would instinctively respect that. He'd end up the jack of all tradish type.

He'd have a real SIN and owe some money to organized crime or perhaps a corrupt bank... or a bank controlled by organized crime (he spent all his on being young again), money he borrowed to get set up for the life he wanted to live. He intends to pay it back through the money earned on his adventurous jobs he takes as an "independant contractor."

Cool, neh?

last...mikeys, that sounds like the kind of guy a kid like Bongo would love to talk to.

Well, at least until Bongo hears him make references to 1970's music!

"Drummer, huh? Let's hear ya lay down Moby Dick!"

-Bongo- "Lay down what?"

Actually, Bongo knows music history, particularly percussion. This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

I'm going to be in England for a week or so, so I may not be able to post/check regularly. I'll do my best.

Is the OP still looking for players?

Just out of curiosity where are you going Pbangarth?

Liverpool to visit my daughter, and a little excursion to a hill in the Lake District called The Ban Garth.

Sorry guys. I've been traveling for work and my internet access has been a little sketch. I am still trying to gauge how much time I am going to have for a project like this. Its a little bit dependent on how some things pan out with a RL game I'm running. But I'll let you guys know if/when I post an official recruiting thread.

Lots of good character concepts here.

Ziara wants nothing more than to live her life happily in the lap of luxury. Shame that requires money. And she doesn't have much of that. One can work for money of course, but that is such a slow process. Her twin sister Zira has come up with a wonderful way to get at that money and that happy life they both want. Runners can land big gigs and make tons of money thanks to all the risks, and the risks will surly provide some excitement, which is all Zira really wants from life. And so by combining Zira's love of combat and physical challenges with Ziara's social butterfly personality, they've decided to dive into the shadows in an attempt to find 'the big score'. One that will satisfy Zira's desire for a rush and Ziara's desire for money.

Shame one of them is only the figment of the other's imagination...