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[5e] Priority-A Resources and Backstory

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Vassago

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« on: <03-05-17/2014:01> »
Looking for some ideas and inspirations for backstory ideas for a new decker I'm spinning up.

I don't usually make an A-Resources character, but my decker took it so I can buy him the best available cyberdeck. In addition, he's got some pretty pricey cyberware, and his deck is implanted.

I feel like it's a mistake to not find some backstory justification for the walking high-tech moneypit he is, but having trouble finding a concept that I like.

My first thought was being a former corp spider, or military/national trained hacker spec-ops, but I don't want to take the SINner quality.

Anybody help spitball some ideas that justify why he's got so much fancy and expensive tech and upgrades?

Just throw some bulletpoint ideas at the wall, see what sticks. Thanks in advance!
And at least put some thought into the Negative Quality Addiction-Mild (DeepWeed). You're playing in Denver afterall, and a Sasquatch-sized joint gets me right in the feels.

Hobbes

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« Reply #1 on: <03-05-17/2056:35> »
Born Rich, got the cool stuff, family wiped out in Matrix Crash.

Criminal Syndicate bought and paid for, crew is now deceased / jailed / whatever.

Stole it.

Worked for a Corp, but the SIN got burnt. 

Stole it.

Painfully acquired one piece at a time, most likely by stealing.

Glyph

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« Reply #2 on: <03-05-17/2209:06> »
Gear is monetized, but resources are just that, resources, things that your character has acquired but not necessarily purchased, even though you deduct money for them.

A decker who comes from the corporate world, a military or intelligence organization, or an underworld syndicate will have bleeding edge tech supplied by his employers.  You don't need an explanation for his gear and augmentations.  What you do need to explain is why the character left (disillusioned, burnt out, fired in disgrace, etc.), and how he managed to not only get away, but keep his gear (gear was paid for but he lost his condoplex and retirement plan, he faked his death or an accident, or maybe something happened to his employers instead of to him - the local syndicate lost a gang war, the corporate division was engulfed by another division and a lot of people lost their jobs in the ensuing purge, etc.).  A character with such a background does not have to be stuck with a SIN quality - ditching a SIN is assumed for most shadowrunners.

A decker who came up from the streets can still have good gear, either from a sudden windfall of fortune, or more likely similarly to the street samurai in the archetypes.  Getting a job, acquiring some gear (either stealing it or getting tech in lieu of cash payment), getting a better job, all the while cannibalizing electronics, cobbling systems together, and coding programs.

Rooks

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« Reply #3 on: <03-07-17/0526:36> »
Disavowed Black Ops sent on suicide mission thought to be dead.

Slipperychicken

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« Reply #4 on: <03-09-17/2055:52> »
An unsuspecting janitor swept the cyberdeck into the trash, where it wound up in a scrapyard selling for scrap. The seller assumed it was bricked and sold it for 10 nuyen.

Rebeldawg

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« Reply #5 on: <03-16-17/2319:49> »
He could have been mentored by a more experienced decker who took one last mission and ended up getting betrayed by the group he worked with as part of a revenge plot and since he didn't have any family or any real friends except for your character, so he "inherited" the gear he has from his mentor.

FancyDerek

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« Reply #6 on: <03-17-17/2152:55> »
Your father was CEO of a company.
Your parents were gunned down by some joker.
The Board took the company.
However you still had a trust fund sizable enough to live a life of luxury.
Instead you spent all your money educating and augmenting yourself.
Now you plan on catching the joker that KE let get away.

 :o

Vassago

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« Reply #7 on: <03-18-17/0815:25> »
This forum is solid gold

And at least put some thought into the Negative Quality Addiction-Mild (DeepWeed). You're playing in Denver afterall, and a Sasquatch-sized joint gets me right in the feels.

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #8 on: <03-23-17/0151:09> »
if I may put in my 'downer' opinion ...

Though it's a classic, none of the 'top ops' sort of backstories really work, and that's for two reasons.  (The rich-kid story doesn't work for the first reason.)

The first is that the gear available to that sort of person, the stuff they hand them (and expect back at the end of the op), is of a quality well above the gear you have available to you as standard at game start.  Your character can get/have a Sony CIY-720 at best, and while this is a great piece of gear, it isn't the nano-edge tech that real black ops (or amazingly wealthy) people have - that would be the Shiawase Cyber-5 at worst, or else something on the lines of the Fairlight Excalibur or better.

The second is that even if you top out your necessary skill(s) at 6, you aren't going to be in the range of a real black-ops individual.  Those sorts have them at 8 and 9 - get in, get the job done, get out again.  'Take care of opposition' is an optional for them (unless that's the job), because there ain't no better op than one that the other side never knows happened.

... and then inject minor alterations to be less of a downer?  ;)

SpecOps can still work, but more/better if this is someone who is still in training.  They get 'light' gear, they don't have the totally killer skills yet, that sort of thing.  They're on a 'training op' - which in SR can be an actual, but comparatively lowballed, operation, simply something more their speed.  Taking down a bothersome group of gangers in the Barrens, eliminating an up-and-coming shadowrun team, running interference for the 'A' Squad, whatever it happens to be, but like with other things, 'something goes wrong' and they get left for dead, out in the cold, find themselves betrayed, whatever.

Another way is for a techno to encounter this sort of 'training op gone sour' and do some recovery of their gear.  Imagine a ganger who's only been able to afford a datajack and a Renraku Sensei being able to find, repair, and explore with a Renraku Tsurugi - something that lets him make the jump from wanna-be to gonna-be.

Or take an alternate Mr. Rich Kid.  Oh, he has - sorry, had - an Excalibur at home; the Sony is his 'toy' deck, something he last used six years ago when he was still cutting his teeth on 'light' targets, or maybe it's his 'game deck', one that carries an alternate ID for him, whatever.  It was in his gaming / old kid hangout space when the house blew up, or the corporation came to repossess everything (and didn't check in there), or whatever - instead of being 'what he can afford', it becomes a significant step down from what he's used to.  (And gosh gee, now he has to actually work to claw his way back up to what he had before.)

If he's a mentored kid, perhaps it's his mentor's gift - said mentor being well past 'that cheap-ass deck' - before the mentor is all but cutting him loose.  "Time you learned the lessons in the street, Homer.  I can't teach you those."

The deck for the 'downsized' corporate almost-security-hacker is his own build, something he was putting together at home - filch a part here, a motherboard there, and hey, he was looking at a real deck ... and then his boss got fried in a scandal, and Downsized Corporate Drone was canned from the backsplash.

Just remember that when it comes to skills a 4 can get you a job, and a 6 is quite respectable ... but think of it more that 4 is 'low/middle-scale college ball' and  6 is 'just breaking into the professional league'. ;)
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Frogsplosion

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« Reply #9 on: <04-02-17/1716:37> »
So I actually was coming up with a decker background for this very reason, but I'm not sure how lore friendly it is. Basically the idea was he started as a corporate decker working for a London NeoNet branch. It was an easy life, being a nameless, faceless corporate wage slave no one really cared about. It afforded him the time and luxury to pursue his passion for technology and exploring the matrix. He would crack into files simply to see if he could, loved the challenge and exploration of it. One day he realized how much he was just rusting away as NeoNet's guard dog. He wanted to be actively uncovering secrets, learning new programming techniques, honing his skills against the best security in the world, not trapped behind a glass wall staring outward at everything he could be doing.

With all the arrogance that comes with being too smart for one's own good, he decided to get out by faking his death, stealing a prototype Nuke-From-Orbit style program powerful enough to erase a SIN (and also nuke itself, the deck running it and all information attached to it) and embezzling millions of nuyen. Unfortunately his transfer of funds got cut off early by G.O.D and he ended up shortchanged and had to blow the super nuke early to lose them. He flew out of Europe like a bat out of before NeoNet could piece together what the hell happenened, ending up in Chicago. He found a low rent apartment, used his black market connections to secure the best deck, and fake SIN nuyen could buy, and began building his new life in the shadows. He was fairly certain the super nuke program would have erased all traces of him from the matrix, but he knew NeoNet had more than enough resources that his past may eventually come knocking one day.