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Awakened Aztlan Streetwalker

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knppel

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« on: <04-07-17/0117:44> »
Using SR5, Priority System.
Metatype C, Attributes B, Magic A, Skills D, Money E.

Gonna translate the biography/background somewhere over the weekend, but let me assure you this darling already displayed in the first playrounds we had why they say:
"Geek the mage first!"
As much as this be said here, because the simple combination of overflowing magical power and the unscrupulousness of a mexican cartel alone seemed not just yet enough, I've mixed that up with a good portion of (superstitious) religious zeal, caused by cool characters on trid series associated with certain gods to attract kids to the cult.

The character runs through the smog of Tenochtitlàn, currently accompanied by four of her relatives:
Uncle Pedro, the patron of the family, a dwarfen mercenary with used Level-4-Skillwires, reaction Enhancers and military contacts
Pablo and Juan-Carlos, her brothers and the soldiers of the crew, the one a martial adept, the other cybernetically upgraded
and el cuñado Guzman, the distant and unremarkable brother-in-law, who actually has a respectable day-job at a local chem-con and tries to not get sucked in too much trouble.


Personal Data
Name: Carmella Estibaliz Dominguez Caballero
Metatype: Elf
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Height: 5'8''
Weight: 81 lbs. according to her SIN (doubtful)
Career Aspiration: Nahualli of Tlazolteotl or SIM-Star (alternatively exotic dancer)
Actual Occupation: Betameth (either using it or trying to get some), studying Aztec religion (via matrix-seminaries and romantic trid-series)
           
Attributes
BOD: 5
AGI: 4
REA: 1
STR: 1
INT: 5 
LOG: 2
WIL: 5
CHA: 8
MAG: 7
EDGE: 3

Essence: 6                   
PD: 12
SD: 12
Initiative: 6
Astral Initiative: 10
Physical: 3                   
Mental: 5                       
Social: 9                     
Astral: 9

Active Skills
Spellcasting 6
Ritual Spellcasting 1
Group Conjuring 4
Chemistry 6
Arcana 5
Assensing 3
Gymnastics 1
Intimidation 1
Blades 1
Astral Combat 1

Spells
Heal
Intoxication
Physical Mask
Control Actions
Control Thoughts
Mob Mind
Mob Control
Flame Thrower
Fire Ball
Orgasm
Orgy

Knowledge Skills
Aztlaner Religious Cults (Tlazolteotl) 3
Street Drugs 2
Gangs 2
Life on the Streets 2

Languages:
Aztlaner Spanish M
Nahuatl 4
English 1

Qualities

Positive:
Menthor Spirit (Seducer)
Exceptional Attribute (Magic)
Toxin-resistance

Negative:
Astral Beacon
SINner (Aztlan, national SIN, registered awakened)
Dependent (Inconvenient, Cartel-Connection)
Mild Addiction (Betameth)

Armor
Slinky, cheap set of clothing from a vending machine (80 Pesos)
2 Pairs of fitting Plateau-heels (140 Pesos)
Pair of leather boots (180 Pesos)

Weapons
Butterfly Knife (20 Pesos)

Commlink
Metalink (200 Pesos)

Gear
Chemsniffer (500 Pesos)
Focus for Manipulation-spellcasting +2, Aztechnology MagiTechs Model "Moctezuma" (giant freen feather crown, 4699;99 Pesos)
1 Snickers (10 Pesos)

Lifestyle:
Squatter (Uncle Pedro pays along for Upper Class for her, though, if she feels like sleeping in a cosy bed).

Contacts:
Well equipped discreet Magitek-dealer, 2/4
Sanchez, Corrupt Officer from La Policia's VICE-division, 1/2
Cortez, Idealistic Cop from La Policia's VICE-division, 3/2
Senor David from totally-not-a-Cartel, 1/3, expects regular drug shipments (Mages qualified to cook BAD's don't grow on trees, after all)

Kuirem

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« Reply #1 on: <04-07-17/0813:56> »
I really like the story and stuff but where to begin… let's take it in order:

Attributes
1 STR and 1 REA is really low. With those your character is almost disabled, personnally I'm not fan of 1 Score without a RP reason behind it (I could understand STR here but REA?). You could easily lower your BOD to 3 to get those to 2.

Skills
The skill repartition is quite weird and a lot of these are not high enough to be used. Spellcasting/Summoning should work well enough but Chemistry/Arcana with your low LOG will rarely score hits. I see no gun options which is always a risky bet (someone walking in the shadows without a gun is either 1. Dead 2. A Mage 3. Both) and your blade skill is also far too low.

It's a shame not to use more that 8 CHA, Intimidation is your only CHA skill. Plus if she wants to be SIM-Star shouldn't she have some Représentation and Etiquette?

I think I would remove Chemistry and Arcana to invest those points into Summoning/Binding and use Skill groups to get Influence or Acting.

Spells
It's always tricky to judge spells because mages like this tend to have some that fit their background. But well your mage might be a bit limited in term of options: Levitation and Physical Barrier are awesome in many situations and you miss a spell to fight spirits and other astral threat, consider picking a Mana combat spell.

Armor
No armor? How are you not dead? Without armor and with only 6 dice to dodge a single bullet will take you down.

Weapons
Yeah if your character want to run in the shadow he should have least have a gun (unless you are in an area where all guns are forbidden).

Gear
No SIN?

Lifestyle
I assume your GM allowed that but it doesn't work like that. You don't chose a cheap lifestyle and say that when I want a cosy bed (i.e when you need a bonus on your healing test) you can get one from uncle else the whole Lifestyle system is useless.

Actually if you want something like that there is a quality: Trust Fund from Run Faster. It gives you access to a good lifestyle and even some money generally with conditions (like not bringing troll runners in the flat).

Contacts
It's a bit weird that the idealistic cop have more connection than an officer.
Same for the totally-not-a-cartel, they tend to have good connections. By the way there is once again a good quality for that in Run Faster: Made Man that make you a member of an organized crime syndicate. In general there are some rules for Organization contacts that might prove useful.

That's about it, hope it helps and have fun.

Rosa

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« Reply #2 on: <04-07-17/0904:32> »
Interesting concept, I have myself previously had a character with a side career as an exotic dancer and my current character has a side career as a cam girl. Both characters have had the seductress /seducer mentor and I can safely say that you absolutely need at the very least the Con skill preferably with a specialisation in seduction in order to get the full advantage of the mentor spirit. With charisma 8 you can easily double as face especially with that mentor bonus. Also if you can get the performance skill is great for such a character as well.

In regards to spells I would drop intoxication, control thoughts, mob control  and control actions and get Influence, control emotions, Trid phantasm and either armor or levitate or both if you can. As a seductress /seducer follower you're better off using the more subtler forms of manipulation I would say.

Just my 2 cents, I hope you have fun with the character.

knppel

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« Reply #3 on: <04-07-17/1501:11> »
@stats:
Oh, I already regret leaving STR at 1, trust me on that. Then again successfully running away with 1 success on 1 die, couldn't have got that with proper skills. BOD 5 is an absolute necessity and the char might already be dead after two evenings of playing if I had set it to 3, not sure.
It definitely was the right choice to start out with, but yeah, I did already announce to the GM I'd do basic workout whenever free for it.
Let's see how long that lasts, though, her patron deity constantly urges her to take a break and rather go down to Stuffer Shack and have some Azz-Burger with sour soycream sauce and Fries. Just in case anyone wondered why this girl has BOD 5 and only STR 1 at the same time ;D

@Gear,
no, no fake SIN's yet, we are good upright citizens of the glorious city of Tenochtitlan, dutifully pay our taxes, and in the zone we settled in Police Reaction Time is somewhere between 2d6 hours and "You called from where??" *loud laughter in the back*, so we settle that amongst ourselves usually (-> Don't call la Policia!)

@skills/Spell selection,
Well, as pointed out- the focus is on wannabe, no one said she got any actual acting talent -in fact, her stats clearly show she does not (or rather, she might have potential with her charisma, but it's been used differently so far).
I've purposely chosen a low priority for skills, since at that age, a character (specially with no really dedicated education) would not be as experienced and trained in many fields- She knows spellcasting and methcooking, already gives her an unfair advantage over most people.
And she's already stabbed people, too.
Having growen up with her natural talent, she' used to simply make up for her lack in skills by use of magic, which the spells reflect: She might not be able to silk-tongue people (yet), then again, why would she bother if she can simply stick her astral fingers in their heads and twist their mind when it comes down to it?
Same counts for many other of her spells- She got no skills yet in Sneaking or Disguise, but she got Physical Mask to make up for that a bit, she is able to magically Heal to make up for her lack of knowledge in Medicine (no matter where you go and claim to be a priest or Messiah, people will always want to be healed of their diseases and wounds first!).

And did you just say the seduction skill is too low :o
*takes money for the full hour upfront*
*casts Orgasm at Power Level 9*
*easily swallows the Drain Damage with BOD 5*
*runs away with your pants, cred and commlink*

Jokes aside, obviously skilling Con, or the whole group, is a goal for this character, however, so far she's simply not being able to pick up such qualities on a professional level- and makes up for it with natural charisma and magic.

Oh yeah, and in case someone finds that not cool to fiddle with his brain or limbs, Flame Thrower/Fireball naturally make up for her lack in shooting skills.
Intoxication she mostly uses on herself when out of drugs and craving for.

&#24525;

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« Reply #4 on: <04-07-17/1601:59> »
Magic can be pretty obvious. Lies, on the other hand, can go on for a lifetime with no one the wiser. Simply relying on spells for social encounters will easily catch up with you.

ZeldaBravo

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« Reply #5 on: <04-08-17/0113:35> »

*easily swallows the Drain Damage with BOD 5*


How is BOD even related to spellcasting drain?
*I have problems with clarifying my point in English, so sometimes I might sound stupid or rude.*

knppel

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« Reply #6 on: <04-08-17/1249:28> »

*easily swallows the Drain Damage with BOD 5*


How is BOD even related to spellcasting drain?

Well it is as soon as you plan on constantly testing out the limits of what is possible, rather than stick to safe magic :D
Or if your plan to bewitch people is too obvious and the team suddenly needs way more firepower than expected *cough*.

And thankfully she's not the dedicated face of the Group, the others have less CHA, but knowledge of Social Skills to make up for.
The impression of the stark raving mad mage is indeed not that wrong (Hey, ever had encounters with actual meth users...? She's the Jesse Pinkman of the group, to compare to methcook-archetypes).
Really High Social skills wouldn't reflect that for me.
If she at some points does get a more professional attitude, that might change and develop.

Until then: Bets are open.
Stoned to Death by Angry Mob 2:1
Sacrified by GM to summon hell-of-a blood ghost on promised "initiation" 5:1
Burns herself out with too much mojo 9:1
Drug Overdose 20:1
Caught by someone trying to geek the Mage first 100:1

Kiirnodel

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« Reply #7 on: <04-08-17/1717:00> »
So, you are saying that taking a couple points of Physical damage from the drain of a Force 9 spell isn't an issue because you have the 1 extra box of health from having a Body of 5?

Keep in mind that a Force 9 spell only causes Physical Drain if you get over your Magic in hits (in this case you need at least 8 hits on the Spellcasting Test, because of your Magic 7).

Having the higher Body isnt a bad thing, I just think ZeldaBravo was confused by your "Swallows drain with BOD 5" because Body isn't used to resist Drain.

Soahl

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« Reply #8 on: <04-08-17/1728:14> »

*easily swallows the Drain Damage with BOD 5*


How is BOD even related to spellcasting drain?

Well it is as soon as you plan on constantly testing out the limits of what is possible, rather than stick to safe magic :D
Or if your plan to bewitch people is too obvious and the team suddenly needs way more firepower than expected *cough*.

I think they're more referring to the fact that Drain Dice are calculated by Casting Stat + Willpower, with Body having nothing to do with it. From those stats, it looks like your Drain Pool would be 13. Pretty mediocre, but functional.

A lot of my advice for this character comes from a difference in play style and all that, so I'm not going to touch upon that. But I'd put at least 1 point in Con even without the specialization. I'd argue that you should still have to roll Con (Seduction) to see if someone's even interested in you when you want them to be before you can get them to pay up for your magicked-up sex antics, and from the description you gave it sounds like that's something she'd be good at. 6 Ranks in a skill is Professional, but 1 Rank means you've done it before. The table in the CRB that breaks down what each Rank "means" is pretty helpful for this. It kind of feels like you're limiting your characters development more than you really should be (but, again, that's personal opinion here).

Overall: I like the concept and it's really interesting to see how you put it all together. I'd do some things differently, but that's because I'm a different person. If you're having fun with them, then that's all that matters!

knppel

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« Reply #9 on: <04-08-17/2321:55> »
For once, the 1 extra damage box did actually make the difference between her running and down in our first adventure. Given our crew doesn't yet have access to DocWagon, she's our healer, and it all ended up in a mess with us being trapped and besieged in our hideout, I can't even point out how crucial that was for the team.
As for a second, keep in mind this character needs her Body stat to resist intoxication. Like, all the time, because she's addicted. And it's also part of the addiction rolls- I'll not remind him to enforce it, but with her current habit it's a matter of time until the GM demands more rolls. So it's not just the extra life box alone.
Last but not least, even if I sticked to using magic at moderate power levels and stopped using drugs- as was pointed out already, discretion is not directly her strength, thus making her an obvious target for any not totally brainless opponent.
BOD 5 defines the resistance roll of my usually unarmed character and is thus absolutely crucial for this build.
In practice, had I put it lower, I'd most likely just been downed by stray bullets fired in the group.

As for the drain resist pool, currently it's indeed 13 (Aztlan Tradition, thus using Charisma). As high as I could legally put it with a normal creation.

as for Con, yeah her low stat might be the reason that she was around as successfull earning money with it as her brother was with the 2075 version of an uber app ;D
The only persons she can in a mundane way convince to do anything as of yet are her brothers (see quotes in the op). Uncle Pedro and his in-law Guzman would not be so dumb to lend a druggie money. As for people actually looking for a good time in that part of Tenochtitlan for 50 Pesos, most are happy as long as he/she/it has two legs only and no legs (hard enough to find vanilla these days, eh!). And for their budget, they could certainly do worse- look, right over there's Hunchback-Margarita with Con 4, CHA 2 and STD... ::)

I've also found a fitting Street Name when listening to some Santana this weekend.
Obviously, it's BlackMagicWoman.  :D

Sterling

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« Reply #10 on: <04-09-17/0650:15> »
As for people actually looking for a good time in that part of Tenochtitlan for 50 Pesos, most are happy as long as he/she/it has two legs only and no legs (hard enough to find vanilla these days, eh!). And for their budget, they could certainly do worse- look, right over there's Hunchback-Margarita with Con 4, CHA 2 and STD... ::)

I've also found a fitting Street Name when listening to some Santana this weekend.
Obviously, it's BlackMagicWoman.  :D

Yeah, but...
Bod 5, Str 1? That's either a freakishly tall stick thin scarecrow, or someone so obese it's a case of slap the thigh and surf the wave in!
"His name is Sterling. He’s an ex-pat Brit making a living as a fixer and a hacker in Metropole. He’s a rare blend of upstanding and fun...(so) listen to his experience."
>>Data Trails, p.82

knppel

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« Reply #11 on: <04-09-17/0803:01> »

Yeah, but...
Bod 5, Str 1? That's either a freakishly tall stick thin scarecrow, or someone so obese it's a case of slap the thigh and surf the wave in!
Food is explicitly listed in her temptation triggers from the patron deity negative quality, indeed.