Aloha! Welcome to another (hopefully) great game. This game is invite only, assuming everyone I invited agrees to play, it is full. There is a chance that some will back out, and in that case I will create a recruitment thread.

Here are two links that are critical to playing in this game.

General Rules

Character creation rules

Please read them, if they are unacceptable it is better to know now.

This game is going to be different. My vision is thusly.

All the players come together and create a shared background. Maybe you all grew up on the streets together, or met in the military. Perhaps you all attended the same boarding school.

Whatever the reason I leave to you. You are all friends, good friends. You have come together to enter the shadows for the reasons above. This will be your first ‘real’ Shadowrun.

You have located a fixer named Zoe who is willing to give you a break, even though you have no street cred. And this is where the adventure begins.

So now we need some backgrounds, some histories, and then some characters.

I want this to be very different then your usual run on the boards. I want a player to step up and be the leader. Whoever that is, will be the acknowledged leader. IC you will trust him/her and follow their direction. OOC of course you are welcome to discuss the plan, but I want the group to have direction.

While this game will be dramatic, I do not want a drama. No secretly hating another player or loathing them. Again, you are good friends. You trust each other with your life.

So,

Step One: How do the characters know each other. Remember, they are best friends.

Step Two: Decide who will fill what roll. I would like the following.

2 Sams (I define Sams as anyone who uses force. So guns or Fists)
1 Mage
1 Rigger or Decker (but not both)
1 Face / B&E
1 miscellaneous

The miscellaneous can be a shaman, or a aspect mage, or anything else that doesn’t fall into the other archetypes.

Step Three: Start building your characters.

Step Four: The game begins!

I have been planning this game a long time, and I am really looking forward to it.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Okay, first question is what's our common theme going to be. Some ideas:

• Same military unit
• Same merc unit
• Attended school together (highschool? Maybe we're all late teens?)
• Attended police academy together (all washed out for various reasons?)
• Grew up in the same neighborhood and were actually a street gang for a while
• Were all part of a policlub
• Were all part of a martial arts school
• Were all framed for the same crime
• Were trapped/stranded together somehow (plane crash or the like)
• Are all part of a band

Personally, I'm not sure what I want to play. I'm vaugely interested in the mage or an adept, but I'm not set on either.

Well, I wanna be the kid with the car, budding rigger material.

Personally, I like the same Highschool thing, maybe we are all down on our luck and met back in Seattle for our 5 year reunion?

This really sounds like my kinda game. So here's a couple of ideas from me. Feel free to discuss, disect, disseminate, or simply just diss it.

Step One: The Shared History...

My first idea was that we could all be from the same neighborhood in the barrens. Maybe we grew up and went to high school together, or maybe we're just good acquaintances and neighbors who've developed a good friendship over the years as we struggle to live our daily lives in this hellhole. Then, when one of us (most likely our Face) meets a fixer who's looking for a job, he or she could recommend the rest of us, and voila...

The reason I like this idea is because it gives us a believable means for knowing each other while still letting us all be individuals *and* incorporates the fact that we're not experienced enough to be the hardcore runners the game normally deals with. It also lets some of us be gangers while others aren't forced to be so, some of us could have served time in the military, and some of us could be fresh out of college (or still attending) in an effort to get out of school... and whatever else. But all of us could always use a bit of extra cash, so it seems to work nicely.

Step Two: Character Ideas...

I've been jonesing for the chance to play a wheelman-style rigger for a while, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity. If we decide on a shared history similar to this one, that's what I'm going to try and aim for. But if we go with something else, it'll depend on that scenario and I'll probably go with a sammy-type or something.

Just for a bit more information, I'm thinking a dwarven wheelman with a passion for muscle cars and drag racing. He's probably a reknowned street artist amongst the gangers and whatnot who sidelines at a chop shop doing detailing work and/or working at a tattoo parlor to help hone his artistic talents. At least that's the general idea I have floating in my head.

So... what do you guys think?

Okay, highschool seems popular.

For the ultimate in Buckaroo Banzai cool, we could all be part of a band in highschool. Without the skinny ties.

Actually I kind of liked the "just being neighbors struggling to survive" idea a bit better than the highschool one, but I'm cool either way.

dibs on the face.

Well, I can do rigger or mage... Im sick of playing the Sammy.

Dibs on Lead Guitar

*cackles madly*

If I had my pick, I might go with "street gang trying to grow up". But then again, I've never played in one of those and I'm sure that some of you have

Really, I don't care too much on the character, though I have no interest in the Rigger or the face, and little in a sammie. So put me down mainly for mage or miscellaneous (well, unless adept fits under sammie).

Who is playing what is less important then your background at this point. Remember though my goal is a serious shadowrun team.

I like the idea of school buddies. Remember, you are all really great friends.

Big problem with being teens is that it's hard to justify most runnerish skills and abilities. Maybe we all flunked out of community college together instead?

Basicly, we need to have spent a significant amount of time together and then had a reason to turn to the shadows.

So, high school friends, formed a band, living in the Barrens.

Rock-guitar based magic user here... like I said, Lead guitar is mine

I gotta leave for Post time now, I'll check back in 6-7 hrs.

Who said we were teens? We went to high school together (if we all want to be of the same age), not that we're in high school.

That said, this is why I was leaning towards the neighbors angle. It lets us be more individual while still having the same connection and friendship, *and* we can be of somewhat different ages, too.

EDIT: And whoa, when did we decide we were all in a band? We may have been in band class, but I'm not keen on being in a band now. With the above, you could be a solo rocker or in some small garage band or something, but the rest of us can still do whatever it is we do.

I really do not like the idea of a band guys. It doesn't fit the feel I am looking for. I want characters who are serious about this. Not the Rocker archetype from first ed.

Your on the right track though, keep it up.

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!

I have an idea for a sammy-type of character so I wanna put dibs down on that. Just for a bit more detail, I'm leaning towards a night one who worked at a goth club until she got fired for getting a little too rowdy. With her already meager house payments in jeopardy, she was only too eager to agree to meet a fixer about a more shadowy job. At least that's my tentative idea for now. I'm not sure if she'll be a sammy or adept just yet, but I am leaning towards the cyberware angle. I know she sounds a little cheesy on the surface but trust me, she can be professional when she needs to be.

So if you'll have me, that's what I'd like to aim for. I also like the idea about us just being neighbors instead of high school friends. I kind of like playing more mature characters in the middle to late twenties and I know a lot of other players prefer younger ones, so that works out better for me.

Here's my idea.
I think if we went with one thing (highschool/band/neighborhood/gang) it would feel kinda.. trite.. I think we should mix it up a bit.

for example:

say lezzie and I grew up together/went to school together.. we're great friends, so we decide to get a place together. she doesn't sound like the college type, but my character might be, so I have a couple of friends from college. they come hang out at the place on a regular basis, and there we have a group of four friends..

lets build on it a bit, and say that one of my college friends has a girlfriend/boyfriend/younger brother/dependent that also hangs out with us..

that's five.

on the other side, lets say lezzie knows someone from the club scene.. fellow bouncer/stripper/club patron/band member... whatever.. he/she is at the pad alot...

that's six.

for the last one.. lets say lezzie or I had a boyfriend(girlfriend?) who we may or may not still be involved with, but continues to hang out with the group.

one of us gets approached by a fixer, and brings the rest of us in on it.

... something to that effect.
what do you think?

I think that would give us the opportunity for more varied backgrounds than all coming from the same neighborhood/highschool/etc...

@BGMFH: Would your Face fill the B&E role as well? I'd quite like to have the B&E guy (filling the miscellaneous slot). Otherwise I'll have a sami or mage, depending on what Tinkergnome fancies.


Crechebaby's idea sounds good to me, as long as Shadow's happy.

If I have the B&E guy, I'll make probably them a skill bunny, rather than a third sami.

I'm actually planning on a Social Mage...

Not a Face, technically...

Though I can turn anyone into a Level 3 Contact with enough Successes... hopefully

Great, I'll take a B&E guy then.

Didn't Crechebaby mention something about dibs on the Face/B&E slot earlier up in the thread?

In any case, I like her idea. I was actually going to recommend something like that originally but figured it required a bit too much coordination amongst everyone (and I've seen how well that tends to work around here). But if everyone's up for it, I'm game, too.

Like Lezzie, I have a preference for older characters and was thinking my dwarf was in his late twenties or earlier thirties, but I can go a bit younger if necessary to fit in with everyone else. Being something of a street artist, he probably hangs out in some interesting circles -- sort of that bridge between a life amidst gangers and street racers and those of in the club scene. Heck, I could see him developing a friendship with Lezzie's bouncer chick when he's commisioned to do some of the industrial artwork at the club or something, and anyone who might be interested in a vehicle with some custom work could rationalize developing a friendship with him, too. Haven't heard enough from anyone else to offer suggestions there, so.... feel free to offer any and all suggestions, and I'll be sure to do the same.

I also think whoever wins the free-for-all for the Face slot should be the one who hooks up with the fixer since it seems a natural evolution. We also should probably start figuring out who would make the best "leader" for the group. I'm putting my preliminary vote in for TinkerGnome and Crechebaby since they both seem to have had a lot of initiative in getting us slackers organized here in the OOC, so they could probably pull it off IC, too.

Okay, the band thing was me being silly. I did indicate that it would produce "Buckaroo Banzai cool" which isn't really that cool

Anyway, military appears to be out. It restricts us a bit much. While highschool can work... the neighborhood thing works better since that would include the highschool thing as well as more.

I don't like a connection that isn't immediate or with everyone. Doing the chained friends thing is fine and all, but it kind of violates the "everyone is really good friends" idea. I mean, I might like you on a basic level because my friend does, but I'm not going to trust you, etc.

If the backstory is chained but there is a more immediate thing, then that'd work fine.

The big question is motivation. Why are we turning to the shadows? What reason does a group of 6 "regular guys" have to take up a life of crime? The easy solution is that we're all SINless. How is this for an idea:

The group is all SINless and living in the Redmond barrens in Sophocles. It's a bad part of town, but not as bad as some parts. Anyway, there's a leadership challenege among the Rusted Stillettos down south in Glow City. The challenger and his supporters survive, but get expelled from the gang. They head north and set up shop in our neighborhood, running off the smaller gang which had been running the area. They start a tyranical protection racket and start leaning on everyone, hard. A small group of neighbors (us) decides that we've had enough and do something about it. We take on the gang fragment (about half a dozen troll-mutant gangers) and wipe them out. We're minor local heros for a few days and then it gets mostly forgotten as the remains of the old gang move back in. We start hanging out together a bit, and that's how our "team" forms.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking of, too, just more thought out and detailed. I really like the idea of us all being really close simply because it was a means of staying alive.

I think our main motivation should just be money, though. I know it's rather blah and mundane, but if we lived in the barrens, taking up running would be an "easy" way out... just one most of us never really considered until after this scenario or [insert player here]'s fixer friend invites them to take up a run. It just seems really natural to me.

I think what I like most about it is that it's somewhat believable while encompassing a heroic bent (what can I say, I have a soft spot for heroics) and, simultaneously, allowing everyone to be individualistic. We don't all have to be the same age, from the same background, or run in the same circles, but we're still close due to that life-and-death bond we formed saving each other and our neighborhood. Some of us can be closer than others (which is pretty natural in any clique anyway), reflecting friendships formed before the encounter with the Stilettos.

EDIT: I gotta learn to focus my thoughts more so I don't have to edit so often. Bleh.

Yeah, money sounds like a good immediate motivator. It may even be the minor rep that comes from eliminating the gangers that gets whoever their first crack at a job.

There has to be a good reason that person immediately thinks to call the other five people on the team, though. Something like the ganger incident makes good sense for that.

All right, I'm really grooving on this idea. After thinking it over a bit, I think I worked out how my character fit into the big fight scene (assuming, of course, that we stick with this idea).

Oscar Chavez (the working real name for my character, a bald half-Mexican/half-Sioux dwarf with a bit of an industrial punk flair) owns a small but profitible detailing shop (think Orange County Choppers) which he uses as a safehouse for goods that a smuggler contact friend of his needs to hide for a while. When the big scene came down a couple of years ago (giving us enough time to build our friendships since), there could have been a rather impressive arsenal of weapons available at the shop. It could have been the extra edge we needed to finish the Stilettos off, or at least the moment the tide turned so that we, the prey, became the predators.

The nice thing about this, in my opinion at least, is that it gives anyone access to some decent weapons but couldn't otherwise rationalize in their background. I'm sure anything up to assault rifles and maybe even rocket launchers could have been included, right up to the allowed Availability rating.

Just another idea to mull over, I suppose. I just wish I was awake enough to make it sound as cool as it sounds in my head, but hopefully you guys get the jist.

I'm not so big on the whole "neighborhood heroes" thing. It just doesn't seem natural to me, I guess. I also feel like it kind of locks my character into a specific type and background.

I may have been a little vague on my team make up so I thought I would clarify.

I want useful characters. I don't want to sound harsh, but it is the reality. If you make a mage and all he can do is turn invisible, then I am going to tell you to make your character again.

Try to fit in, but do not overlap to much. I want you to enjoy the character you make but I also do not want 2 faces. Or 2 Riggers. Let the face be the face. Let the sams be the sam. If you have an idea that doesn't fit into any of those, then that's the miscalaneous.

So far this is what i have heard people call out:

Sam #1 Lezzie
Sam #2
Mage BGMFH
Rigger Rodent
Face / B&E Crechebaby/Raiko
miscellaneous None




Remember be flexible.

Ok, good stuff here. A few comments from me. As you may have noticed I am being much more hands on for this game then I normally am.

I like the neighbor hood idea, but I would prefer that you didn't do the 'banded together to save the street' cliche.

Let me explain why. I want this run, your very first run, to be the first time any of you has seen action as a group. Yes you are friends, good friends, great friends. But this is the first time you have worked together as a team to do a shadowrun.

Remember, 110 points just doesn't mean your less experienced. It also means that you are not shadowrunners. Your not career criminals... yet.

Individual careers that may be shadow-esq are fine. But I really want this to be the beginning, not the middle.

If I am not being clear, ask. I will try to clarify.

Well, whatcha got in mind for your character's background, Creche? Maybe that would help everyone decide which one is the way to go? Since you're saying it would be limiting, I'm guessing you have something else in mind... so lay it on us.

I'm totally down about the no-hero-cliche thing; it was just intended as a catalyst, afterall.

I guess I'm doing the adept instead of the mage, then. Works for me.

Somehow I don't see brutally murdering some gangers who are quickly replaced by other not-quite-as-horrible gangers as being heroic It's an act of pure self interest and/or vengence.

Anyway, I'm not set on that, but it's the first idea that came to mind. So we've ruled out quite a variety of options, but I've heard nothing good put up. While some sort of meeting through each other thing would work, what's the reason the group is good friends.

Remember that means that people on each end of the chain, possibly people of quite different backgrounds, are good friends. There has to be some common interest or tie to make that leap. I can see aquaintences from a linked background, but I can't see "buddies" from it without an additional step.

I'm all for Joe going to highschool with Bob (who grew up next door to Jimmy) and Mary (who flunked out of medical school with Jason) and dated Cindy, but what reason does Cindy have for being good friends with Jimmy? This is the crucial step that's missing. The linking works fine for having everyone meet, but it doesn't go far enough.

Possibilities that come to mind:

• Part of an amateur sports team
• Part of a club of some sort
• Traumatic incident (maybe the friend at the middle of the web died tragically and it's a support group?)
• Worked out at the same gym
• Drink at the same bar every night for years

sorry for the last post.. was kinda disjointed.. I haven't been able to scrape my thoughts together respectably lately..

The traumatic incident does have a lot of potential, too.

About five years ago in the game world (2059), a supersonic flight crashed in the barrens and wiped out everything within three kilometers. What if we were all survivors of that, or maybe we were all on a bus or something when it happened?

That definitely has promise.
So, did we know each other before, or have we just banded together since?

I think I like the thought of us living around the same area--rather than just being strangers on a bus. That way we had some familiarity before.

lets try an link ourselves together prior to the accident.. and then use the crash to bring in all the loose ends. so maybe some of us were friends/acquaintances prior to the accident, but it's the trauma of the event that really seals the deal.

we can throw a couple of anomalies in there to make things interesting, if anybody wants to... say one of us didn't live in that area, but hung out with someone who did, and were present when it happened.. perhaps even had a couple of friends who died..

Like I said before, my character owns a small detailing shop and has a minor reputation in the neighborhood for being a really nice guy despite his outward appearances. He's also an artist that does a lot of charity work (probably on a 3:1 ratio of charity:commisioned works), with a penchant for orphanages, veterans, and that sorta thing. Despite being a bit brash and brutally honest, he's a trustworthy and dependable guy to those he warms up to, and he warms up pretty quickly.

So feel free to offer some ideas there. I'm a little out of it due to some pain killers, so my brain isn't working at 100%.

Ok. I love the crash idea (kudos to Rodent). I think you guys should definitely use that.

...

Ooh, I did something a couple of people liked. Score!

One of the nice things about the crash scenario is that part of it included a major uprising and mass escapes at a nearby prison. So those of us who are combat oriented could include some heroic moments there as they keep a couple of the prisoners away long enough for the rest of us to secure some help for the wounded or something. Maybe my character (a car thief in his younger days) could have found a truck or something that he boosted to get 'em to the hospital, too. I dunno. Just some ideas.

I can see this working into my character concept nicely.

Ok.. now we just have to find out what everyone else thinks about the idea.

Heroic? What if we're one of those prisoners?

Heh. Nah.

I really don't know if being big helpers would be a good thing. Maybe it would be better if we were all just trying to defend ourselves from the riots and barricaded ourselves in somewhere?

Maybe we all lost good (some mutual) friends during the event and we started hanging out together as a support network after the fact (and didn't even meet before or during the incident).

Works for me. This can flip-flop back up to my suggestion earlier about using my character's shop as the "barracade," complete with a stockpile of those weapons to help find them off. Again, that gives a possible way for people to score some weapons that their background wouldn't otherwise allow, too.

I'll go with the "support group" only thing if that's what everyone wants, but on its own it seems as weak as mutual acquaintances.

the more ties, the more convincing this is, I think.

I'm totally cool with relationships prior to the incident. It's just a matter of making the connections. So far, there's only been three semi-detailed comments about character backgrounds, so there's not much to build from there.

Maybe everyone should take a few minutes to throw some ideas down about their characters?

*hands TKG the microphone*

Don't have one yet. I'm waiting to see what the background-linking idea is. I'm guessing I'll end up with an adept of some sort since the mage got called... but I want to know the tie before I invest a lot of work in a background

we're kinda playing it by ear, I think, and then throwing in a traumatic experience.

wanna be my much-maligned ex? ;)

It doesn't have to be much. Just some ideas you might have mulling, not what you're expecting to do. Mine's just a concept, too, and I'm willing to completely redo it if the final decision makes it null and void.