Al's a dick

Hah - no argument there.

But who's the bigger dick, the dick or the dick that runs with him?

I got through Al's story, or at least the end of his time with Honesty and his near death experience. Fantastic read, all pulled together beautifully. I'd recommend it to anyone, as it is simply a well done tale. (I was just skipping through to follow Al's story, so no slight intended to any of the other writers--there is probably more great stuff in there but I just didn't make time to read it yet).

But, it is making me think that making rusty a dog adept, and having amnesia is a bit unfair (asking you to create background for another dog adept). So I'll take a hard look and see if I can keep the feel of the character without having both of those things together.

But don't dogs run in packs....

So what you are suggesting is Al as alpha dog and role model for a young adept who barely knows what it is to be human? Yah, can't see any problems with that at all .... .

(Funny thing is that I suspect that Al might be at least as horrified by the idea as anyone)

Al would probably just call you a hippy.

Barring anything unforeseen, he won't have much direct presence when I'm GMing - too self-indulgent, and besides that his late-2075 self is pretty much all filled in.

But I appreciate again your kind words about my story.

I didn't expect Al to show up, I was just riffing off of DireRadiant's comment -- or was trying to do so on Monday morning, so not being very clever about making clear I was just joking around.

Adamu: I have a question. What are your feeling about qi tattoos (foci) and shapechanging? Do they survive it? Are they useable while shapechanged? Can they be seen while shapechanged?

And some more random notes / things I’ve learned while looking at different takes on Rusty:

- In SR5 wolves and large cats both have body 6. That the average wolf has a body higher than the average orc surprised me, I admit. Makes for an interesting choice for Shapechange – body of 4 so you can be a large predator, or body of three so you can be something small and innocuous? (can only go into shapes +/-2 body from your own).
- Would be a shame to have shapechange and wolf totem, but not be able to change into a wolf. Mechanically there is nothing wrong with it, but it sure doesn’t feel right, so if I went with Wolf I think I’d want to go with body 4.
- It is hard to come up with reasons why a bear would be roaming around the city. Need to look at some alternate forms for that totem—mechanically not as good a fit as Dog, but +2 damage soak dice is never a bad thing to have.
- Chummer doesn’t think that an adept should be able to take focussed concentration. Need to go home and read the actual rule book to see whether I need to plead for a liberal reading of things or not.

NPCs going up on the Wiki section of OP! Keep them coming!

Once created there they can be 'linked' into your bios to make them easier to find in connection with your character!

That was convenient timing -- I put up a preliminary character sheet and background for Rusty, and was able to link in the contacts named to date. (There is more work to be done in terms of formatting, character details, and contacts -- but Rusty isn't in the first wave of characters. I did want to start putting information together in one place, so figured it might as well be OP).

Beta - I don't see any problem with a qi focus still working.

Chummer probably does not take into account that the Adept Spell Power turns an Adept into a Spellcasting Magic User. My reading of Adept Spell is that it clearly turns you into a Spellcaster, and then in turn the Focused Concentration quality specifically applies to spellcasting magic users.

Don't forget the 0.5 power point Heightened Concentration... The mysad's friend!

I don't see one by that name in chummer? According to Chummer there is one called heightened concern, but it is in one of the small books I don't have that I'd apparently bought at some point but forgotten about -- not sure what that does? Now that I've read it, it is pretty cool.

Hmmm, I don't know that it would let you sustain a spell while asleep? (the whole shtick is that Rusty spent some long period as a dog, so needs to have been able to sustain the spell without thinking about it), In this case I probably do have to stick with my plan of buying focused concentration, but being able to ignore a distraction up to magic/2 is pretty awesome, just need to think if there are other powers I'm willing to give up in order to get it. There are never enough PP!

Not everything that happens in a shadowrun narrative has to be strictly translatable to game terms.

If you want this backstory of being stuck in a shapechaged state, there are four ways off the top of my head we could make up as an explanation.

Just never think you'll be able to get away with it in the future, once the game actually starts.

Well, I'm pretty sure that Rusty is still struggling with sleeping indoors ("Hobo with a shotgun" quality). Sorry I hadn't mentioned that in the earlier post. He pretty much heads out at night in canine form in order to find a proper sleeping spot. Except lately on good nights he can stand sleeping in his car -- he can curl up on the seats OK and be his own watchdog for his prized possession.

How did a stray like him end up with a car? Well that is a bit of a story ... Speaking of which, where is the best place for posting background stories?

Anyone is free to do solo posting in the General IC thread on this board.

Or you can always start your own background story thread on either board.

Or, once I start your thread in a few weeks, you can weave flashbacks into that.

Someone used an OC contact I made? Wow. Im... shocked really.

I don't think I'm the only one using Mr. Mouse

How popular is he? He is just a snitch...

GAME ON

Okay, I have three players up - Aria, Raider J, and Dire Radiant, all on Dumpshock.

I will continue to add names through this week until all the first-wavers are up.

So that means Mr. Joshua and Vegas on Dumpshock, then Jack_Spade, BlackBart, Big Guns, and Prof Gast on Shadowgrid - all should be up by Friday.

Then I can start working seriously on second wave, for which I have BrickyardBabe (out sick), BetaX, Chrome Head, and Pap Renvela (there was also a Klausz, but no word for some time...).

If I've left anyone out, I apologize and do speak up!


As described in the recruitment post, these initial one-on-ones will move along pretty gently, let me establish a rythym with each of you, get to know your characters better than just s sheet on OP, and maybe plant a few seeds.

It's all a build up designed (hopefully) to make things more meaningful for all of us further down the road.

I very much encourage you to take the small opportunities offered by my initial posts and run with them - whether conversational, or minor tasks, or whatever - this only works if you post freely and show me who you are and how you operate.
And don't hesitate, where feasible, to do multiple posts (including any flashbacks or internal monologues you might like) between my bumps.

Bumps should come every two or three days at minimum, but more likely every one or two days (or more if I can manage).

Finally, the OOC thread for anyone on Dumpshock will be the existing Story Waters OOC thread.
I will be starting a fresh OOC thread to manage the Shadowgrid side once the first characters there go up later this week.
This thread will just be for ongoing recruitment.

This sure looks like an interesting project !
Do you still have vacancies to fill ?

Adamu is still under the weather I think so I'm not sure how much he wants to take on at the moment, but if you want to join OP, submit a character (with background) then you can always write IC in the 'General IC' here to get a feel for the character, earn some karma, and wait for a slot?!?

Speaking of casting would it be alright once Vexboy earns about 10 karma(not through IC posts mind you.)that he intitate? Is it too early in the story for that? I ask because he has been in training for about 10 years and Im thinking its about time for a real test before he falls deep into the Shadows.

Roger, boss !
I kinda got the feeling I shouldve checked the recruitment threads more carefully before barging in >_<
Anyways, will do !

I know you are probably nowhere near thinking about round 2 (and realistically, everyone in round two needs to wait to see if decide you have the bandwidth to add a second round. Even where there is desire, time and mental energy can fail), but I’m going to chuck a bit of character discussion your way anyway. Feel free to table this until (if) you get ready to think about round 2.

I think I finally mostly have Rusty feeling right and working out on paper (I finally stopped trying to be practical and just threw in everything that I wanted to play with, and it works—at least for me). But there are a couple of things I want to check before submitting the full character sheet.

1) The good news is that he no longer has the amnesia negative quality. Not that he remembers anything before being a dog, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have knowledge skills, it just means they are mostly knowledge that he acquired as a dog.
a. Which means some quirky knowledge skills that I’ll be trying to make creative use of. I don’t think there are limits on knowledge skills, so this should hopefully be OK?
b. You’d still be free to bring in things from his past—hence defining some of his past--if you so desired. But this way there is no pressure in terms of me pushing to buy knowledge skills so you having to decide what he knows. (and associated with this, he will likely never fully regain memory of pre-dog years – one of his contacts has a theory on why, but I’ll put that into story form eventually)
c. I thought about trying to create a new, smaller, negative quality to represent the lack of a past, but concluded that he already has plenty of negatives so it wasn’t worth the bother.

2) On the other hand, he has one negative quality that I’m not sure is worth the points, so would be willing to take reduced points if that would make it easier for you. I have him down as having an Emotional Attachment to his slide guitar – the first thing he found that made him want to stay human, and one of the few indications of his old life (i.e. stores were mostly full of ‘stuff’ then he recognized a guitar and had to have it. He isn’t very skilled right now (doesn’t properly remember chords or techniques), but has a lot of raw talent (inspired and perfect time qualities, nimble fingers adept ability). Obviously the guitar playing will seldom be key to his being a shadowrunner, just more a part of his side story telling, so I’m not sure that you want to wring 5 points worth of negatives out of that. I’d be willing to see it drop to 2 or 3 if that would be easier for you.

3) I was struggling with contacts, until I started to think more about contacts he may have made as a dog. The thing is that logically some of those would still only know him as a dog. Just checking that you are OK with us having to work the story around that challenge.

4) Finally, I’m writing him up in the south end of the plex. I haven’t seen any real guidance on you wanting us to be in one area or another so I assume that is OK? (really just chose that over north end for proximity to Honesty, although Everett and Snohomish might actually have made more sense as places to roam—at this point I could still easily change areas).

ETA: One more – is it OK to have a free spirit as a contact?

Just a quick check: has anyone else used Drox (street medic I created) as a contact? I was looking to up her connection rating from 2 to 3 after I reviewed the ratings table in the CRB, but I want to make sure this isn't messing up anyone's else's math.

(I'm cross-posting this to the Shadowgrid thread too)

RECRUITMENT UPDATE

Second wave will be the end of the one-on-one, then duos, then finally groups format.
That means Beta, Chrome Head, Pap, and Brickyard if she comes back. Also Renard and Horseman if I get submissions.

I will still have recruitment open for people that want to join as others drop out, but they will be brought into the existing groups.

Well here we are. I posted the next part. Can I buy the combat knife and concealable quick draw holster for it for book price or do I need to do any rolls?

Without wishing to be awkward, can you move questions like this over to the OoC thread now please? Unless Adamu has an overriding reason to disallow it I would assume you can get both easily enough, although you might need an appropriate contact for the second item...or a SIN?

OoC: http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...t=0&start=0

Slowly getting Rusty locked down and formatted on OP. Unfortunately it seems each wiki does formatting slightly differently -- anyone know what the code is to make a cell span two rows of a table is on OP? What I'm familiar with is |^| in the second row in that location, but it doesn't seem to work in OP. Looking online I found some rowspan="2" encoding, and that didn't seem to work either. (possibly you can't make a cell span two rows?)

Not big deal, just trying to make it clearer that "High Pain Tolerance" comes for free from "Pie Lesu Domine. Dona Eis Requiem." What I ended up leaving in the character sheet probably works well enough, but it isn't elegant so it is bugging me.

Hopefully I'll get the last of the character up tomorrow -- I ran out of time for now because of struggling with the above, doh!

I probably should have double checked that rules work the way I thought they did before finishing things up. Turns out that I was wrong on a couple (focused concentration doesn't work when asleep, extra hits on natural healing don't shorten the healing period (is it works in 24 hour blocks). Pretty basic stuff, just things I'd misunderstood on first reading and never double checked

Anyway, yay for being in wave two because I need to change at least one of the descriptions/fluff for Rusty, or the character build.

So please ignore the stuff I have up on OP. When I'm back on a proper computer, rather than my phone, I'll blank out his character sheet, but will leave up the contacts I've submitted so far, in case anyone else is referencing them.

Is this game still recruiting? Because I have a character in mind. Elf ex-corporate decker/face.

Hey, I remember you - you posted a couple of times I think in our General IC thread a year or so ago!
Liked your stuff.

And thanks for the PMs - as I've told some other people, I will give them a good read when I get close to being able to move you into the game.

As Dire pointed out (thanks Dire), we are a bit swamped with applicants at the moment.

I have just got the "first wave" of nine players up and running, and am trying to bump all those about three times a week.

As soon as I can, I have I think four more players waiting be integrated as a second wave.

Once all that coalesces into more conventional teams, then I will accept new applicants as people drop out (because they always do).

So while I heartily welcome you, I am afraid the timeline for actually getting you into the game is a bit uncertain...just cuz I'm swamped.

Thanks, it's nice to feel appreciated!
Well, I was afraid your reply would be something like this. I know how quickly Shadowrun games fill up, and I have to say I admire you, it takes serious guts to GM 13 people all at once in PbP!

In the meantime, I'll keep refining Angel. I played as her through the Shadowrun Chronicles videogame and I found it ironic that NeoNET was so deeply involved, so I might actually decide the game's story was canon in my character's background and now she's on the run from her former corp for having seen too much in Boston...

oh, so much inspiration and so little time to work on it!

Sounds good...do you have an Obsidian Portal login? If you let me know your user name I can invite you to the campaign page (assuming you aren't on it already?!?)

Okay, yup, I've been managing to bump the whole first wave at least twice a week as promised.


BUT - I have indeed still not gotten the second wave launched.

RL keeps popping up - just a quick post to those who haven't totally given up on me that I am working on the second wave...

Quick character building question: do you allow breaking of skill groups during character creation? (by RAW I think the answer is 'no' but I never quite understood the why of it). I.E. if you take Athletics skill group at 2, could you then use skill points to take Gymnastics up to four, and add a specialization to Swimming?

RAW clearly says no, probably to block some min/max loophole.

Just easier if we stick with RAW, barring a compelling reason not to.

Glad you continue to savor the chargen process during my eternal delays - some news on the horizon though - really.

I like playing more than playing around with characters ..... But that said I do really enjoy playing around with characters. Gives me a nice mental distraction from more mundane matters.

Not a problem on not breaking skill groups---been playing a bit with an aspected caster that would have liked it, but that build was somewhere like third or fourth on my probable choice list.

Big announcement

Due to me obviously biting off more than I can chew, the esteemed Mercy Merchant will be co-GMing with me. Specifically, Mercy will be launching the one-to-ones for the Second Wave and GMing those characters until stated otherwise.

Because I have taken so much longer than planned to get this started, some people may have justifiably given up on me (ouch).

So Mercy is trying contact all the second wave folk, and do pipe up here if you have not been reached.

Also, Mercy is having trouble getting registered on Dumpshock, so may have to conduct things on Shadowgrid.

I think I can manage to fix that.

Seems to have worked, and Mercy says thanks!

Whatever you did, Dire, worked well. Thank you.

I know it's been a couple of weeks now, just wanted to pipe up and throw out that I'd love to join into a game when something opens up.

Totally new to PbP, only a little experience from 4th edition, none so far in 5th but I am pretty well versed in the rules... I think.

Able to fulfill any role that is needed as far as skill set for a character.

Hey, Mercy here. Talk to me about a character and I can fit you in. You need to get one up on the Obsidian Portal and get invited by Aria, neither of which is hard to do. I can get you up and running in no time if you are interested. Get back to me, please.

Adamu,

I'm not sure if you will remember me but I played Rocky (troll boxer) in your Up from the Bottom campaign 6 or 7 years ago.

Glad to see you were able to get back to the game and are running again. I still tell people about that game.

I haven't read the whole thread but I gotta ask if you have any spots open? I've recently gotten bitten by the SR bug again and want to start playing again and playing in one of your games would be great.

Let me know and I'll start catching up on the thread.

JD

@Aria - Can I get an invite on OP please? UN: jdragon

@ Dire Radiant and Vegas cool to see you both still around, hope we get the chance to run together.

I have not made the change over to 5th Ed but have started looking in to it and will be working on a character concept as soon as I can.

@Adamu - any chance I could update Rocky to 5th and bring him in? I would be fine with him starting him back at 0 karma or what ever you are good with.

JD

Hey, JD, Mercy here. Have not talked to Aria or Adamu yet on this, but I could add you into the game if you are willing to let me GM you. We are sharing the GM duties and I have space for about one more person before I tap out. It would be some solo play at first then moving into pairs and small groups as we progress. I am very big into heavy RP, so if that suits you, send me a note. You still need the invite from Aria, and we can get you started as soon as you get a good character up on the portal. Please look at the threads on this site for Helena and Juniper to get an idea of my GM style. If you do not think my style will fit with you, then we can see if Adamu can take another player.

@JD - dude, welcome welcome!

Have spoken with Mercy and we've agreed that you'll come over to my side of the game (though you may be getting the short end of the stick since Mercy posts more than me - I'm a lot older and slower now than back in the Hitting Bottom days!).

And no problem at all if you want to bring Rocky over.
I'm not sure if there's a RAW conversion system to SR5... if not, just build him again as best you can, then add whatever karma total you had from Hitting Bottom if you want - you earned it. And of course fill in his background to bring him up to 2075.
Make up whatever you like about resolutions to any problems he was facing back in the last game.
And of course add a bunch of contacts per the campaign rules - that part can take time, but feel free to add any existing contacts from the campaign - check out the contacts page on our Obsidian Portal page.

As you've seen, this is starting out with a bunch of one-to-one threads that will hopefully coalesce as we go (yeah, not super original!). Not sure how long you'll be in a one-to-one situation, though, since we've been at it for a bit.

Stay in touch if you have any questions!