I was thinking that today as I was posting another contact -- whether I should link it back to the character or put my name in, or something. But that felt a bit awkward when nobody else had done it .... so I concluded that when you post them, you toss them into the wind.

Anyway, for what it is worth, Mr. Jabowski is one of my creations (he loaned money to Rusty), but he is one of my 'free' contacts entirely under GM control, so feel free to use him how you want.

FWIW, back in 1st or 2nd edition, one of the books had a mafia foot soldier NPC, and one of his quotes was something like "The name's Jabowski, why?" (I'm sure that was not the exact name, but something like that). I was thinking what it would mean to be a good mafia soldier, but not of the right family -- what would success look like? And I was taking the In Debt quality, so it just came together.

Sorry Adamu, I now have the plague. Hope to be back on my feet soon, until then I will be holding down the couch.

Yikes - it's like I gave it to you - though unless you've been to London recently....

Just be well!

Adamu I believe its your cue. Two more posts and I am in the clear! 11 karma!

@Adamu/TC: I'll use Spriggan's accumulated karma to bind both her Qi foci, Combat Sense 1 and Astral Perception, 12 karma! Of course I now need to learn assensing but we'll get to that! Thanks

I suspect background count in Glow City is going to be high so hopefully won't have to rely on magic too much...ah, I'm playing a character that relies on magic... love the challenge

Do I play the character I am talking to or wait for you?

I see there is a Dangerously Popular young woman coming to town.

@DireRadiant

Don't see this SmoothXX person on your contact list.
Not a big issue - we can just treat it as a matrix search - can you give me a roll for that?
I am sure you can find people that will do background checks fairly easily - so you can add an extra die per Y100 if you want...

Also, we probably need to figure out some rates for Ice Station Zebra - no charge this time since you fluff-imposed the restricted zone around Kiska on yourself (unless there's some source material I missed!).

But when it's something that gets thrown at you by the GM you'll need to pay them...

(This campaign you get Y2000 per two IC posts in place of getting paid for runs etc - but that's still a lot and I've got to nickel and dime players where I can!)

Anyway, let me know how your matrix search goes and I'll post some results IC!

Like we split it - if you ask her about your personal search, you can run her. If it's about D-Pop then the reply is going to be all me.

Also remember 99% of people are just citizens. Asking totally random people on the street for leads on mysterious ladies tied into child peddling rings is just going to confuse, annoy, or scare them.

No problem on the spend.

And you're in luck - I hate the background count RAW - way too easy for it just be everywhere, making everything an unnecessary hassle.
I only use it in very specific situations, so unless otherwise warned, you don't need to worry about that.

You'll have plenty of other challenges to worry about....

Smooth As Silk. It's Silks matrix gaming User name at The Citadel.

If Kiska is an island in the Aleuts, I wasn't sure so I just assumed it was for this case, then it should be of interest to Japan, Yakut, Trans Polar Aleut, Salish Sidhe Council , Tsimshian Protectorate and Athabascan Council. Not that there is much on the islands. Not necessarily restricted, but going there might draw interest from a lot sovereign states.

I need to pay both contacts so let me know what you think are reasonable rates for these services. I think one of the books had fees for basic decking services. I'll check when I get home. Ah sadly SR5 doesn't seem to have a shadow services table like Unwired has in it. So Adamu name a price.

Like it! Will have to incorporate that somewhere in her write up

Well if anywhere should have background count it's going to be Glow City!!! Will RP it even if there's no penalty... although the SR5 version of negative D modifiers is a lot less clunky than the previous editions!

I've updated Jan on OP: https://stormy-waters-2075.obsidianportal.com/characters/jan

I think he's pretty much done now. Expanded and altered his background, expanded and written up his contacts, added a post count for each game he's been in. One thing I haven't done yet is spend any money or Karma, but I figure I'll get around to that later. His time has been a little tight

I've also added Silk as a contact, and I've mixed my normal contacts and 40 freebies in together so you can mess with any you want I still have 24 contact points to spend, but have no ideas currently. I'll get back to that later.

@Aria: Is there any gear and such that I came out of LG and TGL with? I didn't write any down, but I remember I got given a load of stuff before LG started.

@Adamu: If it's not too much trouble could you highlight the text in Jan's Tangled Currents with turquoise? Makes it a lot easier for me to read

I honestly can't remember! It probably wasn't too significant though so it's probably worth just sticking with the 2000 nuyen per 2 IC posts... don't worry about lifestyle costs, just buy stuff!

Life got busy. Finished my post.

Doh - should have caught the "Silk" in there. Okay, so that's obviously a contact (duh) - but (and I need to talk to Aria about this a bit more) I never feel right playing her, since she is widely used as an NPC but is also a PC (that belongs to the campaign's head GM).

But yeah, she'll shoot you some info in the next IC.

I agree all your assumptions about Kiska are solid! But like I said, when you impose problems on yourself that I hadn't thought of already, not going to charge you for it.

So let's just say Silk charges you Y300 for info.

As for Mission Control, just to keep it simple call it base Y250 for rural and Y500 for other urban and Y750 for Seattle, times number of jurisdictions.
So for example within Seattle, that's Y750 x 1= 750.
Seattle to Portland would include all three categories, so average base down to Y500, but then three jurisdictions (UCAS, Salish, Tir), so total Y1500.

But Kiska would be a can of worms. But also middle of nowhere. But not charging this time so don't have to decide!

Is what I did on the last post what you wanted?

I made an edit after your question so you did not miss it the first time.

Ah sorry no. I said text but I meant speech, like I've been doing. It's fine if you don't want to bother coloring everything, but having the speech stand out is useful

I remember hearing there were rules for buying new contacts. I think from Aria. I would like to buy a stylist. Someone who can disguise me or give me advice on how to dress for an occasion. Thats a viable contact right?

Ok, back amongst the living. Mostly at least. Ugh this flu is brutal, avoid at all costs.

Pay karma equal to connection rating, your GM (Adamu in this case) will decide loyalty... I suggest you mark it as a * on your sheet so we know you haven't specified it!

Specified it? You mean like... made clear what my contact's backstory and name is?

Too Late!

Nooooooooo! Not you too!

Once you have done up the backstory, I'll be able to get a sense of what the loyalty might be (probably initially low in most cases).

Through role-playing over time, loyalty may go up or down at GM discretion.

Also - Vexboy - sorry to throw slang at you that I just made up on the spot - just so you don't assume D-Pop has porn star mammaries, when the guy you talked to said double-E he was referring to Eastern European. Vexboy would know that. My bad.

Sounds like you are visiting a stylist next - once you get that contact up, you can post yourself to that meeting, and we'll take it from there.

Hope I'm not taking liberties introducing Cannon as I did, if you've got something else in mind I'm happy to modify the IC!

Thanks for the post format Adamu, that's what I meant. Would it be easy enough to edit some of the others? It's fine if you don't have time though.

Im having a hard time writing up the new contacts backstory. How do you all get past writers block?

It really can be hard sometimes – I find especially if I’ve been creating a lot of characters (PC/NPC), that sometimes I’m filled with all sorts of inspiration, and sometimes that well is really dry. What I have found works best when that sort of writer’s block strikes is … writing. More to the point, just start writing the NPC, even if you feel what you are writing has all the flow of a grade three ‘what I did during my vacation’ presentation. Let’s say I scribbled down that I had a Fixer, and just called him “Mr. X” at the time because I didn’t even have inspiration for a name. It might go something like this for me.

“Mr. X is a fixer. He specializes in ….” Hmmm, what does my character going to need a lot of? High grade ammo maybe “ ….in military grade munitions. He is based in” let’s see, I want him reasonably convenient, and I said my character lives in Tacoma – hey, Fort Lewis is near there, right? “south Tacoma, near Fort Lewis. Rumors that he has a pipeline into supplies at Fort Lewis have never been proven.” And suddenly ideas are starting to percolate up, why does he have those contacts, maybe he’s ex-military himself, that could add to his description. Maybe he works with some mercenary groups, in fact maybe the best way to get in touch with him is through the contact for a particular merc group. Maybe he actually works out of their off-the-books firing range ….

Often times by the end I have to go back and re-write the beginning, because a) the idea developed as I shifted, and b) the first part sucked because I had no ideas when I started it. But that is OK.

That works for me, no promises that it will work for you, but maybe give it a try.

ETA: the key parts are
- giving the GM the basic outline of the character so they can run them mechanically (Mr. X might be buzzcut, use military lingo, etc., location and contact methods are described)
- giving the GM some hooks, some things to speculate about with the character. Does Mr. X have a pipeline into Fort Lewis? How come he hasn’t been shut down? How beholden to that mercenary group is he? (or how beholden to him are they?)

This is not an awesome NPC – yet. But as interactions happen, things get fleshed out more.

And of course, all of this is just IMO.

Would it be feasble to have a stylist who specializes in getting shadowrunners who arent the social butterflies of their groups into high class meets without drawing attention to themselves? Sorta like someone who could instruct you on how to act and behave in a social setting?

I am enjoying reading everyone's work in Tangled Currents!

Even the newbs?

I've avoided all the other threads so that when it gets 'tangled' I'm exactly as informed as my character

Ditto.

Facemaker John or “John” for short. (Face, Retired Shadowrunner, Image Consultant) Human Age: 45
Loyalty: * Connection 6
This runner has been to every meet and every meetup spot imaginable. He even made it to retirement which is more then enough to speak his praises. Intuitive and charming and moving with the grace of a man who has seen it all. He wouldn’t notice a newbie like Vexboy but… he owes Astral a favor. His job is a “rent a face” and a “make you dandy enough to look the part” bit of image consulting. He can tell you how to behave, what not to say, and how to take a drag of a cigar in any place. And anything in between. If Vexboy ever proves himself the real deal in the Shadowrun community they might become better aquainted but until then he is just doing a favor.

How is this?

Cool - looks like already on your sheet.
Get it on the contacts page and I think you get karma, too.

Just remember, he can give you advice and set you up with a look, but you won't get an Etiquette skill without paying karma.

@Dire -

apologies in advance if I missed something on your sheet - is Night Wind a spirit or minion? Can you let me know stats, etc. (or if you only intend it as fluff, don't sweat it, but then it won't be much use if trouble arises...)?

Okay, just for you cuz you're a special snowflake.

Anyone else asks me to start doing rainbow posts and they'll find themselves in a dark alley surrounded by shedim-possessed dragons.

@Aria - we've had a pretty good time with TLG. I think we've got it to a point where we should catch whoever our target is....

A while ago I think there was talk about you stepping back in or else offering some guidance on whoever the boss we're supposed to catch is...if you want to do that, cool - and no hurry - we're posting about once a month as it is!

Or if you want to just leave it to us to make up, you know we're always perfectly happy to do that as well. Just didn't want to run ahead to victory without checking in first....

Mea Culpa. "Night Wind" would be tonight's version of the Force 4 Air spirit always on hand. Every Sunset and sundown and however times in between as needed.

What are we doing for dice roller?

@Dire - anything you want.

Roll analog - if so, please report in order rolled, and I'll add or subtract mods from the right end of the string.

Or use Orokos or whatever.

Orokos 10 rolls F4 Air Spirit Summonings Magic 4 Summoning 6 +2 Air : 10#12d6t5 8 2 2 4 5 5 6 3 6 5

Drain F4 Air Spirit Summoning C5 W2: 10#7d6t5 2 3 3 3 4 2 1 0 1 4

I'm glad you agree I'm special

It's much easier to follow when reading back, cheers

@Mr J - what she sends over is basically all the canon info on those organizations. I am mostly using Runner Havens, but if you don't have that a lot is on the Shadowrun Wikia. If Jan's willing to sift through it all, assume he knows all that sourcebook info. You can even add other general stuff as well.

Of course, those little blurbs in the sourcebook are by no means exhaustive, and all three organizations have a whole lot more going on...

Ooc: Adamu. I hate to ask. I really do. But i have no idea how to roleplay a face in any capacity. When I post could you play Facemaker John?

I hadn’t intended that you meet/capture the Big BadTM but rather get sufficient hints to point you in the right direction in the future. LeFey will find Winter’s fingerprints all over the hiring of the Chinese mercs (he/she has form for doing that!). eTher will be more interested in potential links to a NeoNet insider who fed info to the mercs and promises to deal with that internally!

All in all I’m happy for you to bring this to an interim conclusion and we’ll pick up the threads later on down the line, perhaps as part of the Storm Force Whisper thread we’ve discussed in passing (although the two threads are linked but divergent so we’ll see…). So many ideas, so little time

@Adamu - TC

Question for you. Is there a known timeline for the opening of the club? Trying to space my prep-posts accordingly

Sorry for the slow posting schedule... work blew up on me a bit this week.

Yeah, sure, if you post yourself getting to him and open the chat, I can voice him.

Or you can, if you change your mind once you start writing - there is no set way to play a face, they are all just individual folks- and if I play him it will inevitably deviate from your image of your creation.

Either way okay - post and then I will.

They'll open the doors at ten, hopefully with a line of people already waiting outside.

But of course various insiders will be hanging around in the place well before that - so it really depends on when you want to get there, and if you want to make an entrance into a crowded venue, or if you prefer to set up in an initially more intimate environment.

After reading about how much Ilia knows about which bath products of hers he likes, reckon I need to know whether they have a history of intimacy and, if so, where that stands currently.