Don't forget about te prices of used ware. Paying only 76% of the cost makes a difference when added up. With that in mind a skilled rigger like you were looking at seems more plausible.

Oh great point there!

I almost forgot about buying used gear: it is even appropriate given the setting.

I think my plan of action for Tribes is this, I am going to switch my Dwarf character to the former Docwagon Medic, and make my Rigger human or elf so I can afford to bump her resources up to a C and not have to
pull my hair out stretching every Nuyen he has to the limit.

As far as their placement in the Tribes, would you prefer new characters from the outside joining the Tribes or if the characters are already part of the Tribes.

Or one new to the tribes (Doc) and one who was raised within the Tribes (Rigger)? This is the idea I am leaning towards myself.


-Always Overkill

Machine Ghost / Oyl has been recruiting for the clinic so it is plausible that the doc could be new. That leaves the rigger as the die hard Mechanical if you like

Here is the first character for tribes, Background will follow shortly. He will be new to the Tribes, looking for a good place to set up.

Character Name: Darbis Hummels
Alias: Patch
Archetype: Docwagon Medic
Race: Dwarf

Working backwards from the aquired attributes etc, I assumed priorties:
Metatype: C; Attributes: E; Magic: E; Skills: B; Resources: D
to copy to a spreadsheet.

Can not have Cybertech (Cybertechnology) skill not when already have Biotech group (5). 2 extra active skill points for somewhere else
save a few karma: use attribut points to get karma to get Willpower(3) instead of Intuition(2), then use the karma for Int(2) for 10k instead of 15
Addiction:Mild is 4 karma not 5 SR5p77
Contacts have a maximum capacity of 3 SR5p444, so too many enhancements
The vision enhancements (except image link) all add to the availability of the device they are added to, so even if contacts had the capacity, that would be availability 6 +6 +4 +2 +1 = 19
The same thing in goggles, that DO have capacity 6 would be 0 +6 +4 +2 +1 = 13 availability
You have 6 points unspent for Contacts (the people kind )
Maybe I missed something dumping the information to the spreadsheet (or the spreadsheet has an error), but it looks like you have 6445 Nuyen left. Planning to carry that into the game? I would guess get some of the karma back that was spent for the extra resources instead. Maybe some of that is in lifestyle, which I do not see in the post. No Fake licences for any of that restricted tech either, though in the barrens, with care, you can get away with that. Just hide or don’t carry if you travel 'uptown'.

Thanks for all the tips!

Perhaps Patch can help Oyl with this inexplicable flu-like virus that has been ravaging the Barrens

I will get the appropriate items sorted out shortly.

Hopefully (other GM control/say so), the flu has vanished, although it WILL be on the list of things Oyl would bring up to watch for, as part of any local orientation.

@Aria, when was the 'last/most recent' case identified?

Heyo,

Got the decker ready for approval that I mentioned I was hoping to switch with Bandit as a main character, and put bandit as a support character.

"Revenant" Former Corp-Decker

Chargen:

Background:

Description:

There hasn't been one for a while...long enough to get complacent

I doubt Oyl will every be complacent about something that has/can so seriously affect her tribe, that she does not understand and have a solid handle on. Especially when it is in her more professional skill area.

My sheet has been adjusted accordingly, spent the last of my nuyen (1,175 left) and contacts. (details to follow)

Working on my background now. My current idea is to start him having just arrived to Seattle, looking for a place to hole up and keep a low profile. Darbis' current plan is to
set up shop as an underground street doc and cybertech specialist. One question I have is how he came to find out about the Tribes and decide to join them. Perhaps the
Smuggler who helped get him out of Detroit and took him to Seattle knows someone in one of the Tribes and recommended he go there? If so, would he tell him anything
about how you join up with them?

Or do I just knock on the front door?

-Always Overkill

Looking close. As soon as you have a bit of background, fine to start using as is (without making changes for things mentioned here)
If you want to get rid of the initial blank link inside the spooler, put the [ spoiler ] tag at the beginning of the first line of content, instead of on it’s own line above.
The remaining essence looked a little off, in your favour, until I tracked it to my spreadsheet showing rating 1 instead of rating 2 bone density augmentation. That was probably part of the previous Nuyen difference too.
Code of honor quality SR5p49 needs a specific group.  I am guessing innocent bystanders, but you need to choose.
Typo: Sguatter lifestyle should be Squatter.  Better to put that before Contacts 3, or after the options on the contacts
The Contacts are still overloaded: maximum capacity 3, and you have 4 used.  That also pushed the available to 14 (6 +4 +0 +2 +2)
Are you using a spreadsheet to track Nuyen?  My spreadsheet now shows you overspent by 6372, with nothing to carry over.
Did you have a dice roll for the non-carried over starting Nuyen SR5p95, 2D6x40 for Squatter?

49250 Cyber and bioware
 7007 weapons and ammo
 1000 armor
 2500 electronics (commlink)
 1875 sensors (contact lenses)
   600 lifestyle (with racial adjust for Dwarf SR5p66)
14020 the rest of the gear including the credstick, fake SIN, medical supplies, B&E gear
76252 Total
Select some gear to purchase after some IC posts.

I also show a single karma point left to carry into play.

Either your smuggler or fixer contact could know about the tribes, and Oyl has been looking to expand the clinic, so possibilities there.  I think Aria is supplying a free tribe related contact that could get you in the door as well.  I am guessing someone from the Balefire runner team, but do not know what will look right to Aria.  If your back story has a way to know about the clinic (that Medicine knowledge skill might do), you could just show up and ask to talk to Oyl/Administration. The tribes are not in the habit of shooting strangers. That would be bad for business <grin>, so you really only need the location.

Now if Aria will just authorize Oyl to upgrade that clinic from a pair of medical stations (SR4 AU124) to a medical shop SR5p443|AU122, and get medkit(8) capabilities.  That should be enough for a 'surgery' for a street doc.

Oi, my math is that off?

My apologies, I was doing it pencil and paper style. must have messed up after I heard that I was under by over 6k, and got my total mixed up with all the changes. I can drop the Orthoskin I picked up
thinking I was under the total, which would cover 6k. I will go over everything again to make sure things are right. I will just turn the contacts into glasses or goggles

Background will be coming today, just have to give it the finishing touches.

Also, a total newb question, but what system are we using for rolling? This is my first PbP in over 10 years.

-Always Overkill

http://invisiblecastle.com/ is the usual. It is up most of the time, but has been down occasionally.

If you want an excel version of the character generation process then I (with much help from Machine Ghost and Slacker) have conjoured one up... PM me with an email address and I can add you to the distribution list

Ha! I've got visions of this place being more 1960s than 2060s...think M*A*S*H rather than slick automated machines

You can perform surgery here, it will even be clean, I suspect it won't be cutting edge though! Cyber but probably not bioware given the 'tech' predilections of the tribe...and it suits me that you occasionally have to go outside the tribes to get the things you want!

@Tribes, Drace,

General ruling: Frizzen can try selling some reloads on the side, but there is not going to be any extra in game Nuyen for it.  Ammo is a bulk commodity item.  Even if the quality really is good enough, the amount he could undercut the market rate is not enough to convince customers that it is worth the risk.  They will mostly go with the 'name brand', where the quality control is generally known.  There will also be issues with the quality of the collected brass, requiring more attention than just a 'moron' watching it.  The equipment doing the reloads also needs regular maintenance.  Frizzen’s numbers are when things are freshly tuned, but, like a lot of other tribal equipment, needs regular TLC to keep it there.

This is enough to allow tribal members to purchase (after character creation) ammo (not caseless from the description) at the 20% discount that applies to things the tribes have appropriate skills in.

Other things to consider for this sort of venture.  Oyl did not really cover here (inspite of the size of the post), but Sprogget [at least], probably Nimbus, has bent her ear about electronic visibility and tracking.  The brass will typically have embedded RFID tags (even without considering other manufacture markings).  So will the supplies used for the reloads.  A tag eraser takes time, and needs to be very close to the tags to do a good job.  There will also be random security tags that would not handle.  The tags and other forensics would not point directly to the tribe, but analysis would show that they are reloads, not factory.  The pattern would put a bulls eye too close to the tribe.

I see that the Bandit has Ritual spellcasting 2, but no rituals known that I can see.  He can of course still use the skill to help others do rituals.  I'll ignore some options right now.  I have not done (finished) the SR5 rebuild for Oyl yet, some things look interesting in that area using the Circle of Healing.  The ritual leader needs to know both the ritual and the spell, so need to see where I can get to; A scenario: Circle of Healing + Increase[Body] or Increase[Willpower] would add to the dice pool of anyone that stays in the circle to heal through resting.  The sustained health spells fit obviously with the Circle ritual.  Still working how the Circle should work with the permanent spells.  The 'simple' answer is that anyone entering, and staying in the circle long enough for a cast spell to become permanent gets the full effect based on the net hits from sealing the circle.  That could make for some potent spells in a clinic situation.  Spend a few hours every few days to create a circle of healing, then 'walk' people through it after the regular first aid.  With decent numbers from the Sealing, an almost instant extra 3 or 4 boxes of healing.

It might be good to edit the character information post, and uncheck "Enable emoticons", so that "8" ")" does not turn into   See Focused concentration. Here is another 'trick', for when you want both emoticons and the text in the same post (like I do here). Insert & 8204; (without the space) before the ")". That is a ZWNJ (zero width non joiner … (8‌) (

@Aria,
If I can figure just how to work it, the Circle of Healing might provide some general basic care at least.  No help with surgery itself, but maybe for recovery.  It would need to be higher force than Oyl can really afford to use, but the way to help surgery with it, would be Increase[Logic].  Doc gets smarter every time he walks into the operating room   And so would any assistants for teamwork.  Force 8 or so though would hurt, one way or another.

I might as well put my latest notes here, instead of emailing them.

CG5.03
'Adept+Init'!H13 Enhanced accuracy SR5p309 works with ranged weapons too: Any Combat skill except Unarmed Combat
'Adept+Init'!H19:H21 bad notes for Improved Potential SR5p309; +1 to limit / level
'Adept+Init'!D6:D41 missing several max level(1) limits: Astral Perception, Critical Strike, Enhanced Accuracy, Improved Sense (separate from allowing multiple instances for different attributes,skills,senses,etc)
'Adept+Init'!H31 RAW seems to say Kinesics +1D resist any social test (like intimidation), as well as tests (including assensing) to assess emotional state or truthfulness.  Effective against detect truth spell too.
Magics!A101:J101 Missing Shadow manipulation spell SR5p294
Atributes!H22 currently =$'Equip Summary'.F7+$'Cyber & Bio'.J4 which looks like intended to add the essence loss for cyber and bio.  However, 'Equip Summary'.F7 is taken from 'Cyber & Bio'.J3, which is already the accumulated total.  Fortunately 'Cyber & Bio'.J4 is empty, so it has no effect

My own Google Docs spreadsheet, which is easier to share, is coming along.  I have Attributes, Qualities, Skills, Powers, Formulae working pretty well.  I even have a flag to use 'Street Scum'.  Next up are complex forms, then cyber/bio, before I get into the straight 'gear' sections, and a character sheet for summary.

About Frizzen-
Sounds good, was mostly looking for it to be a RP thing to justify income etc rather than there being literal profit for Frizzen. Will be writing up next Frizzen post with him deciding to just set it up with firing range ammo, and enough to keep while tribe supplied plus a small surplus or emergencies and the like.

Also, if I have Frizzen make contact with a contact of his (the arms dealer) should I make the rolls of acquisitions in the ooc and then post a reply stating as per the book or wait or a Gm to decide on the eventual outcome (ie price and when/if available). Planning on picking up a few smart links, laser sights, and other accessories within his price range. And lastly concerning Frizzen, what would the possibility of him producing easier I make specialty ammo(specifically gel and hollow point) Gel rounds are essentially ammunition with the bullet replaced by specialized kinetic gel and hollow point bullets have specially indented tips compared to regular bullets.

As for Bandit, I got the ritual spellcasting for him to work and develop on but I could see that beig a great use if it and him learning the spell&rotual for it.

@Drace,

Frizzen is 'active', so I moved that reply over to the 2075: Stormy Waters OoC thread.

For Bandit, yes, ritual has some interesting possibilities, where things are not time critical, or regular in fixed settings like the clinic. I also need to get a feel for alchemy, where things can be prepared ahead, but have limited shelf life.

Does the game have/need a sammy? I have very limited experience but am willing to learn and pretty open re: times I'm available.

We've hit a bit of a lull at the moment as I'm swamped with work but feel free to submit a character here or in the main 2075 OoC and we'll fit you in somewhere!

What character type is most needed right now?
[Edit:] It looks like you need a mage?

It's a bit more complicated because Tribes isn't set up as a 'run', more an ongoing 'life in the barrens' type thread so there aren't any required archetypes to make a balanced team. I'll tailor opponents to suit the current group (which is kind of just Drace's Frizzen at the moment!). So, create a character you want to play and we can go from there

I just don't want to feel superfluous, and from what I saw in the recruitment thread the currently active characters are fairly combat heavy with no full mages. I'm working on a Gnostic; will post when finished.

Yay!

I'm not alone anymore.

Currently my character Frizzen (gun bunny/Sam archetype) is the only real active character, with my two alts (bandit-support mysad & Revenant-decker) being barely part time played.

Pity this is 5E - most of my "street level" character concepts involve advanced character options as yet unavailable, and the couple that don't wouldn't make sense in a Seattle setting.

Still, if the campaign could use an injection of fresh blood and vigor, I'd consider taking the time to come up with something new and join the fray, if folks would care to have me.

~Umi

It would be nice to have more than two

I'm building a hermetic mage who moved to the Barrens so he could conduct magical research without being beholden to anyone or worry about being "recruited" by a corp.

I'm willing to entertain the possibilities of working out an SR5 conversion of an SR4 item/ability etc if it helps? Metatypes might be a bit more complicated to resolve but probably not beyond the bounds of possibility...

Any new characters would be very welcome! I hope that I will have more time for GMing in the near future so should be able to devote more time to Tribes (one of my favourite sub threads!)

Guess you wouldn't have to worry about ethics committees and the like either

The thought had crossed my mind, though I have in mind a pretty nice guy who only gets scary when someone pisses him off

Where do you fall on Reagents / Focused Concentration cheese?

I can't imagine you'll find many quality Reagents in the Puyallup Barrens.

Also, they changed Focused Concentration from having 2 Ranks and giving +1 to resist Drain per rank, to having 6 Ranks and allowing you to sustain a single spell of up to [Rating] Force without penalty.

(Unless you meant Heightened Concentration? Thankfully it hasn't been carried over to SR5, and hopefully never will be.)

~Umi

Hits from Reagent bonuses aren't capped by Force, so some people cast spells with reagent bonuses & keep them sustained with Focused Concentration (since it doesn't explicitly say you lose the sustained spell when you sleep). Too cheesy for me but was curious as to your take.

Sustaining spells requires you to be conscious.

All Focused Concentration does is remove the penalty for sustaining - you still have to be awake to sustain the spell, even if you don't suffer any negatives for doing so.

~Umi

So I've been statting out a dwarven Scavenger and Handyman, kind of a jack of all trades but with a focus on finding, collecting, repairing, and selling electronic, mechanical, and industrial goods, especially from remote and hard to reach places like abandoned underground tunnels, sewers, collapsing buildings, and the like.

He's kind of an independent survivalist, but I was thinking his major connection with the Mechanicals would be his seeking out their shamans for healing and doing various odd jobs for them in return.

~Umi

That sounds amazing! What's your combat strategy?
My hermetic will definitely know Heal, so we'll probably have an established working relationship. Feel free to hit me up here or (preferably) on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/tyro.kathar) and we can talk shop

My combat strategy is a reliable shotgun on medium spread to make up for my own lackluster attack pool size by limiting the enemy's defense pool. Also I have 5 Edge, which is quite nice for a dwarf. (This double E and zero A priority thing is an interesting challenge.)

That and being smart about when and where I fight. I took a decent bit of demolitions, so I hope to employ prepared-in-advance grenade booby-traps from time to time. I also threw some of my starting resources into a cheap combat drone (Ares Duelist) which I plan to use more as a deterant and a defensive tool than anything else.

As I said, more of a generalist and survivalist than anything. My boy's scrappy enough to handle your typical everyday threats, but he'd rather avoid a fight outright if he can and knows that getting in over his head is likely to get him killed one day. He's more interested in maintaining a low profile and making an unattractive target - I figure that'd be a pretty common mentality for regular denizens of Puyallup who aren't gangers.

~Umi

Okay, how's this look?

Looks ok so far, but edge 2 might want boosting when you can!

Would you do me a favor and double check the math? I'm still getting a handle on 5e chargen.

I see Edge as adaptation to one's environment (and too powerful at high levels); I intend to increase it over time.

Any skill suggestions (changes to active skills, and what knowledge/language skills I should take)?

I do more or less the same thing, both in regards to shotgun use and in keeping my head down

Not necessarily the final version, but pretty close to it.


Background - WIP

Description - WIP

Reference Image

~Umi

What's Boone's background? Maybe he and Manthanein could trade notes, researcher and source. It looks like Boone's lived a pretty rough life; I'm guessing his parazoology knowledge comes from personal experience. Manthanein would appreciate that kind of knowledge, and value its source. Might provide some free healing in exchange for errand running and the like.

Boone's from the CAS, with his family originally being from southern Appalachia.

He used to have a quiet life as a full citizen, working a corporate day job, making ends meet or near enough. In 2063 he took a transfer from Charlotte to Seattle as part of a corporate restructuring. In 2064, his legal identity disappeared without a trace in the Crash 2.0 and he ended up homeless and jobless.

Somehow he kept his head above water for another year or two - rooming with friends, living off savings, and struggling in vain to get his old life back - but when the money ran out there was nothing left to do. In the intervening years he's squatted in almost every borough of the city, but almost never for longer than six months in a single spot. The exception has been Puyallup, where he's spent the past five years carving out a meagre living, much of it owed to the presence of the Crime Mall.

His parazoology knowledge is indeed somewhat firsthand, as you always run the risk of encountering Ghouls and Hellhounds in a Barrens environment, to say nothing of universal pests like Devil Rats. The stuff he hasn't dealt with personally he's made sure to read up on at least a bit, because there's plenty of nasty things down in the dark to get killed by. It's one reason why he always tries to get a verbal response out of any junkies or drunkards he has to cross paths with: Gabriel Hounds can't speak.

~Umi

Adamu has kindly agreed to take over as GM temporarily to run Steamer's abduction. I think he intends that Frizzen will meet up with Tyro and Umi's new characters at the mall and they will have leads but I'll leave it to him to explain. I will probably bow Cam/Lady boy out for now but Briar will be available if you want matrix support!

Enjoy!

Might want to put a link to the IC thread in the first post of this one - took me a bit to dig through and find it on my own.

~Umi

@Umi and Tyro

Sheets look good, and I am getting a good sense of the characters' backgrounds from your discussion.

Umi - you mention your sheet is possibly not final…?

Also, any further background is not required but very cool - the more I know, the more I can tailor subplots to your characters.

@Any other would-be Trivespersons -

In the spirit of Aria's open door policy on the campaign, I will be happy to take new runners into the game mid-stream.

@All -
shall we say until early next week for the initial group's sheets to be finalized, and I will open doors into the IC from there?

I was thinking of tweaking gear, but I'm pretty much set now that I've gone over it a couple times. The only thing I would change is giving myself a point or two of actual Sneaking, but I can't figure out how to shift my limited points around in a way I'm okay with, so I guess he's just not very sneaky.

I'll call him done.

~Umi

Are we using ad-hoc Group Contact rules, or if not how should I handle my connections with the Mechanicals and the TM tribe?

[Edit:] I have myriad severe health problems which can strike with little warning and put me out for hours or days. If I don't respond to messages, my character is sick / deep in research / helping someone with a crisis / etc. and therefore unavailable.

If you aren't a tribal yourself I suggest taking one contact with the tribe as your main point of contact and you'll get passing aquaintaince with the others. No need to take the whole tribe!

@Umi & Tyro: I've linked your sheets in the main OoC so if you could keep any updates on the same post that would be great! We can probably move any conversations over there now or PM Adamu / myself if you prefer.

@Tyro, sorry, not had a chance to check your maths on the character. If you want to PM me an email address I'm happy to add you to the distribution list for my excel character generator. Should have Run & Gun info added shortly too!